


Shards

by GreatWyrmGold



Category: RWBY, Worm - Wildbow
Genre: Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-25 14:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4963831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreatWyrmGold/pseuds/GreatWyrmGold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Worm takes place in a universe which is dark and gritty, without being grimdark. RWBY tries to be serious, but the result is still lighthearted and campy. What happens when the gray morality and methodology of the former meet the black-and-white world of the latter? The Undersiders are sent to Remnant for unknown reasons, and must learn how to survive and thrive in this new world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Remnant 0.1: Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undersiders, eight supervillains who briefly controlled the ruined city of Brockton Bay, find themselves in sent to a strange new world by the mysterious Cauldron. This world is none other than the world of Remnant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: I tried to avoid them, but some pretty significant Worm spoilers follow, and eventually RWBY spoilers as well. If you don't want to have their plots spoiled, I'd suggest you read Worm and watch RWBY first.
> 
> On a related note, I've tried to explain enough for the benefit of those who read this without reading Worm, but some of this will only make sense (or will make more sense) to those who have read Worm. It's a great read, anyways. Similarly, those unfamiliar with RWBY won't understand what's going on any better than the Undersiders, and the first volume, at least, is pretty good.

 

**Welcome to Remnant 0.1**

**Dawn**

Lisa, better-known to many as Tattletale, woke up. She wasn't in a bed. Lisa tried to stop her power from telling her the obvious—that was quite literally a headache before she got the hang of it. Hard ground, green canopy, tree trunks. She was in the middle of a forest, but...something wasn't quite right about it. Lisa had been a city girl, and aside from a couple camping trips when she was young, Lisa hadn't spent a lot of time in forest. Still, even ignoring her power, it was obvious that something was off. The trees seemed a bit shorter and rounder than the trees she remembered from both camping and pictures of natural forest, looking more like solitary trees you might find in parks or on lawns. The ground was covered with a homogeneous coat of grass, rather than bushes and more patchy grasses where there was space and light. Not that there weren't bushes, they were just more clumped and leafy. There was something that smelled odd, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Around her were the unconscious forms of her friends and teammates—Brian, Taylor, Rachel, Alec, and Aisha. They all had codenames they used while out in costume, of course, but at the moment they were in…well…calling the clothes normal would be a bit of a hard sell, but they certainly weren't in their costumes.

Brian, the former de facto leader of the team, was wearing a black shirt and what looked to be a black leather trench coat over jeans which were, remarkably, black. So far, relatively normal. However, the collar, the ends of the sleeves, and the trailing edges of the coat were overly large, and the entire coat looked stiff. In addition, he had some sort of dark gray shoulder armor, and there was some kind of smoky emblem on the shirt and one shoulder.

Taylor, the current de facto leader, was arguably the most normally-garbed of them. She was wearing a blue dress with thin black lines scattered across it like webs, collecting on the chest into a solid spider-like shape. Its skirt only reached to her knees, with dark fabric fluffing it out; the skirt was just about met by a pair of dark blue boots. Her glasses were replaced by a pair with large cyan lenses and a strap holding them onto her head, while a dark belt went around her waist. Underneath her was a rumpled, dark blue cloak.

Rachel, the most quarrelsome and antisocial member of the team, wore a gray shirt with a white vest over it. The vest had a spiked pauldron on the left shoulder and a symbol resembling a stylized wolf's head over the right side of her chest. On her lower body, she wore white sweatpants and brown boots, while she had a fingerless glove on her right hand. Referring to his clothing as white was not entirely accurate, as much of it was prominently smudged with green and brown from the forest floor, all the more obvious due to the pale fabric.

Alec, one of the more senior members, was dressed in clothes which were actually not unlike his costume. He had a sky blue, ruffled shirt, and a pair of blue leggings. On his hands were cyan gloves, on his back was a sky-blue cape, and on his feet were blue pointed shoes. Like Rachel, his clothes were adorned with green and brown stains. Despite this, one could make out a crowned heart emblem on his shoulder and, once Alec rolled onto his side, cape.

Aisha, the newest member of the team and Brian's younger sister, was not dressed for the weather. She had a cloak around her shoulders, a top that was something like a cross between a tube top and a corset, a pair of shorts, and thigh-high boots, all varying shades of dark gray. On each boot was a stylized pair of horns.

Lisa looked at her own garb. She wore a short maroon dress with a pair of straps holding it onto her shoulders and a brighter belt around her waist. The skirt wasn't lying flat on the ground like skirts tend to do, so she suspected that it had some sort of fabric within, similar to Taylor's. She also had a short jacket that just reached past the small of her back, of the same shade of red, and high-heeled boots which reached roughly halfway up her calf.

Aside from these six, two others were nearby. One Lisa immediately recognized as Sabah Nejem, another parahuman from Brockton Bay. She had been working under the name of Parian, trying to protect a group of people. She had eventually agreed to work with the Undersiders, though not really as a full member, in exchange for their help with that goal. The other was an Asian girl Lisa didn't recognize. Neither of them were in what could be counted as normal clothing, either. Sabah's current attire was at least similar to what her costume had been, a pink dress with a pair of crossed needles embroidered on the chest, its skirt fluffed out with some kind of white fabric. She also had corset of a paler shade of pink, looking to be some sort of leather, was laced around her waist. On her feet were high heels more suited to a formal dinner than a camping trip. Her companion wore a yellow low-cut shirt with sleeves that reached her elbows, with a gap at the shoulders. She also wore yellow jeans and boots—guess what color—with thick black laces. The shirt and boots had a stylized bow-and-arrow emblem on them.

Something was going on, and while the implications were troubling, Lisa knew that they all had to be sorted out. Except maybe the precise details of how they had gotten into these outfits—that was something not worth dwelling on.

Lisa's memory of the previous day was a little fuzzy, but she could remember bits. Noelle had gotten free, heroes from across the nation and a few villains came in to try and stop her, and in the process the close ties between some major heroes and a group called Cauldron came to light, confirming the existence of the latter to many. While the reveal was initially limited only to those present at the battle, the Undersiders had chosen to spread the knowledge a bit further. They went public…which was, in retrospect, a terrible idea. Cauldron was a covert organization, but it had plenty of power to use when prompted. The Undersiders had been betting on them not being willing to use their power in a manner direct enough to catch them, with Lisa's power and their contact networks letting them hear about more indirect methods. Lisa had had her doubts, but she was convinced that it would be worth it even if they were killed. Probably. In any case, Lisa and the others went home; Lisa had gone to bed, and later was forced awake. Her power had told her she was being attacked, and a half-awake Lisa saw her life flashing before her eyes before she was knocked unconscious.

Lisa had never predicted that Cauldron would do something like this—not that she was sure what their plan was, entirely. Still, sitting in unfamiliar woods, she could guess what had happened so far pretty easily. One way or another, Cauldron had captured them all, knocked them unconscious (probably at roughly the same time), and left them…here. Wherever that was. Her first intuition was that this was some kind of park or similar, maintained to look pretty…

Thin, winding trails, no gravel or wood chips: Game trails.

Game trails, lack of artificial materials or constructions, lack of human footprints leading down trails: Minimal human presence for extended period.

…but that theory was quickly discarded. Maybe it was abandoned for a while? This train of thought crashed quickly; Lisa didn't need her power to point out that the trees would have spread their limbs, the bushes would have spread, and most conspicuously, there would be younger trees springing up.

The others were beginning to wake, sit up, and look around. Sabah exchanged surprised looks with the others. The unknown girl glanced at the others, and paled slightly when she noticed Rachel, before glancing at the rest of the Undersiders.

"Something's...not right," noted Taylor.

Alec rolled his eyes. "What an astute observation. Maybe it's that we're in the woods? That doesn't seem right."

"Maybe it's the fact that we lost our clothes and look like the Power Rangers?" Aisha guessed.

"Um...Aisha? What Power Rangers shows have you been watching?" Lisa asked.

Taylor raised her voice. "I mean, something other than the obvious. The air's different, somehow. There's something missing, and something...extra in it. The bugs are different, too."

Now that Taylor pointed it out, Lisa could see it. The air smelled different, a bit like the difference between inner-city air and what you'd breathe on a camping trip, only magnified. In addition, there was something unusual in the air. It was faint, but it was present enough to just be notable to human senses—a scent sort of like a coppery taste, if it was like anything she'd experienced. As for the bugs, well…if it was another world, there were bound to be differences, right?

Lack of recognizable pollutants: No heavy industry present in region, likely none on planet.

Unusual smell: … … Unusual pollen in air?

Lisa knew that when her power worked that long and hard to come up with anything, it didn't have much to go on and was barely better than a guess. But she still knew one thing.

"Taylor's right, there's something weird going on here, besides…the obvious. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore."

Aisha interjected, "No sh—"

"More specifically," Lisa explained, "we're in a completely different world. One where the inhabitants, if there are any, haven't been pumping the same stuff into the atmosphere as we have been for the past couple centuries. We are almost certainly here due to Cauldron."

Sabah frowned. "Cauldron?"

The unknown girl spoke up. "The group those clones talked about last night. Controlling the PRT and stuff."

Lisa nodded. "Right. And…we sort of forced them to go public."

"Why?"

Brian shrugged. "It seemed like the right thing to do. Cauldron ruined a lot of lives, probably killed more than a few people. It's not right to keep the world ignorant about something like that. And we thought, maybe we'd be able to deal with their response."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe. We knew they could kill us, but hoped they wouldn't."

Rachel spoke up. "Why didn't they?"

Brian looked towards Rachel. "Excuse me?"

"Why didn't they kill us? Why were we brought here? Killing us would be easier."

The question hung in the air.

Lisa broke the silence. "Probably because they need us alive."

"Why?" the yet-nameless girl asked.

"…I don't have an answer. It's something they either can't handle, or don't want to handle, but that they think we could help with. So, more than a typical supervillain, but less than an Endbringer."

"Reassuring," Alec noted.

Brian frowned. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Lisa tried to think like Brian for a second. "Jack Slash?"

He nodded. "It makes sense. We…mostly came out ahead when we fought him, and the Nine are the kind of enemy you want everyone you can get when you fight them."

"That still leaves one question unanswered, though," noted Aisha.

"What?"

"Why did they leave us here? Wouldn't it be easier to just leave us locked up somewhere?"

Lisa nodded. "It is odd. I suspect there's something here for—"

Taylor raised her hand, cutting Lisa off. "There's something weird in the woods, and it's coming straight for us."


	2. Welcome to Remnant 0.2: Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undersiders clash with a strange monster and make a plan to find civilization.

**Welcome to Remnant 0.2**

**Blood**

Taylor awoke before Aisha and Alec but after the others. The first thing she noticed was the grass against her skin, followed closely by how sore she was, and some time thereafter she briefly realized that she wasn't wearing clothes she recognized before putting that out of her mind. As she sat up and tried to stretch the kinks out of her spine, she looked around with her own eyes and with the senses of the insects, spiders, and such around her.

Taylor quickly discerned a couple odd things. First, while the bugs were generally recognizable, most were just a bit different and most of them couldn't be identified more specifically than "ant," "butterfly," or "spider". They were also quite uniform, with only a few kinds of butterflies and spiders and one kind of ant. Taylor remembered a day not long after Leviathan attacked that she spent seeing how many different kinds of bug she could identify; she counted well over a hundred, including over a dozen spider varieties, several types of ant, and scores of fly species. Second, a lot of the bugs were at least a bit bigger, ranging from ants being maybe a third larger to a large number of inches-long beetles and a few wasps of a similar size, with oversized stingers.

In addition, the bugs smelled...something unusual in the air here. Two things, really. First, the omnipresent taint of pollution was gone, like the difference between the inner city and rural areas, taken to its ultimate conclusion. More unusual was the presence of something completely unknown in the air. It reminded her a little of something from a factory, a little of a little of what she imagined sticking her insects' antennae into an electrical outlet would be like.

"Something's...not right."

"What an impressive observation," Alec noted dryly. "Maybe it's that we're in the woods? That doesn't seem right."

"Maybe it's the fact that we lost our clothes and look like the Power Rangers?" Aisha suggested.

"Um...Aisha? What Power Rangers shows have you been watching?" Lisa said.

"I mean, something other than the obvious. The air's different, somehow. The bugs, too."

Lisa nodded. "Taylor's right, there's something weird going on here, besides the obvious. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore."

"No sh—"

"More specifically, we're in a different…"

Taylor's attention was diverted when she noticed a strange animal, something like a wild boar in general shape and size, and mostly covered in jet-black filaments somewhere between feathers and fur. The head was different; through the fuzzy vision the arthropods' eyes gave her, it looked like there was a red-and-white mask with four orange eyes on the creature's face. Similar patches of white dotted the creature.

Taylor carefully landed some flies on and next to the mask. It felt solid, like rock. Maybe it's bone? Taylor was trying to think of if she had ever felt a sheet of bone, or any bones that hadn't been cooked or fossilized or something. She also noted that the mask was solidly attached to the creature's face, and that part of the white blur was actually a large, sharp-looking pair of tusks. Checking the other patches revealed them to be much the same, aside from the lack of red markings.

It shook its head to get rid of the flies, then suddenly stopped. It turned its head towards the group and began creeping towards them. Taylor tried harassing it with mosquitoes, biting flies, and other pests the more it came towards them, but it ignored them save for an occasional shake of the head.

Taylor raised her hand, interrupting whatever Lisa was saying. "There's something weird in the woods, and it's coming straight for us."

Everyone was looking at Taylor, waiting for her to continue.

"It's some kind of boar, but it looks tougher and meaner than normal ones. It has big, sharp tusks, and…it's definitely coming for us. Rachel, Brian? See if you can find some big sticks. Everyone else? Find a tree to climb or something, you're—"

"We're not big and strong enough to fight wild animals with sticks," interrupted Alec. "Got it."

"Right. Alec, if you can, use your powers to disrupt or stop it. I'll do the same. Lisa, speak up if you can think of anything helpful."

Lisa nodded. "Got it. That tree looks pretty good," she added, pointing to a large tree with rough, rounded leaves.

Sabah frowned. "There aren't any low branches…"

"Same with the other trees."

Taylor continued with her orders. "You're Parian, right?"

Sabah nodded. "This is Flechette, you pr—"

"Okay. Flechette…Flechette, can you use your power on rocks or whatever?"

"Anything I can touch." She was already grabbing fallen twigs and what small stones she could find. "I used to use a rapier, before joining the Wards. I'll stay on the ground with the others."

"Alright."

The group made preparations. Alec, Taylor, Lisa, and Sabah helped each other into the most convenient tree, while Brian and Rachel got branches with the help of Flechette and her power.

"By the way…Taylor, your teammates are using your real names?"

"It's a…thing we do. Codenames in costume, real names otherwise. Good habit, we thought."

Flechette nodded. "…Lily. I'm Lily."

"Glad to make your acquaintance. The boar's getting pretty close. If it charged, it could probably get here in a few seconds, but it isn't. I don't think it knows we know it's there."

Alec shifted on his branch. "Maybe it's just passing by?"

Lisa shook her head. "If it was, it would have gone around. No reason to mess with us."

"Well, there goes my hopes."

Brian sighed. "You're safe in a tree, Alec."

"And if it takes you, Rachel, and Lily down, it won't climb the tree to—"

"Boar, not bear."

"Oh. And now my hopes are back."

"Glad you have so much faith in—"

"It's charging!"

Out of the tree cover came the creature, even more monstrous through human eyes than arthropod ones. What had seemed like tusks were protrusions marked with red and jutting from the creature's jaw, blurred by compound eyes with its slender fangs. The eyes were as unnatural a shade of orange as Taylor had thought, but they seemed to be glowing faintly. The fur, if that was what it was, was shaggy and stuck up in random locations, giving it a wild, fierce appearance. And it was rolling at them. The shocked protestations of the three adolescents armed with big sticks were cut off by the need to dodge to avoid getting maimed by the monster. It stopped and unrolled, letting everyone get a good look at the unnatural beast.

"I've got nothing!" shouted Alec as Taylor set thin clouds of insects gathered over the creature's eyes.

Brian glanced to Rachel. "Flank?" She nodded in reply, and the two of them began advancing slowly.

Lily stared at the black beast. "Keep an eye out, I'm going to hit it. Don't want to hit you."

Brian nodded, as Lily threw a pebble. It passed directly through the white mask and the creature's torso, burrowing a ways into the ground and out of sight. This would have been the end of any natural animal, but this was clearly no natural boar; its injury didn't stop it from running towards the three fighters. Perhaps it was a bit more clumsy, but it was largely unaffected.

Brian and Rachel backed off to the sides, trying to force it to divert its attention three ways, while Lily grabbed her stick and prepared to strike it. The monster darted between Lily and Brian, striking Aisha directly in the leg with a blunt tusk.

"Aisha! Wha—" Brian's concern was interrupted as the monster whirled to the left and latched onto his leg. Brian bashed it a few times before Lily stabbed his assailant; his branch struck hers and was sliced clean in half. The monster, now clearly hampered by the branch through its chest, nevertheless spun about to strike Lily. Its blow was interrupted by Rachel jabbing her branch at its face, catching it between tusk and fang to pull it off-balance. A brief struggle between Rachel and the monster ensued, ending with the branch snapping. While the struggle was occurring, Lily recovered and grabbed the branch wedged in the beast, and managed to twist it, nearly slicing it in half. The creature collapsed and remained still.

Several seconds followed where no one moved, worried that the beast would once more stir. Lisa broke the silence. "I'm pretty sure that if it could still attack you, it would."

The four in the tree climbed down, while Rachel and Lily examined the wounds suffered by Aisha and Brian. The former had a broken leg, with probably both the tibia and fibula fractured based on the way it seemed to have an extra joint. Brian's injury was likely more immediately dangerous, several deep wounds from the monster's teeth.

Brian took one look and winced. "I don't suppose anyone has a first-aid kit or…sewing needle or something?"

Lily was already working, using a twig and her power to remove a large piece of Sabah's dress. "I took some basic first aid with the Wards, but no, no kit. We do have Par—Sabah, though."

"I didn't take any first aid, though…"

"Time for your first lesson, then."

While Lily and Brian tutored Sabah on stitches, Alec and Lisa started improvising a splint for Aisha's leg. Taylor and Rachel stood a bit away, trying to help when they could but fully aware that the way they could help most was probably not getting in the way.

Rachel glanced at the monster's corpse. Taylor noticed that its inside was a flat, bloody red, with a thin coating of black and the white mask and lumps on that.

Rachel looked back to Taylor. "Do you think we can eat it?"

"…What?"

"Is that thing edible? If we're stuck here, we'll need to figure out something to eat."

"I'm…maybe we should wait for Lisa to be done and ask her?"

"Probably. Maybe…would spider silk help?"

"A little, if I had enough. I don't have any, I don't know if we could make enough fast enough to be worth it even with the number of spiders I'd have back home, and there aren't as many here."

"Less bugs here than in Brockton Bay? Is that normal for forests?"

"I don't think so. I haven't been outside of the city since I triggered."

The wounds were treated—not well, but well enough given the circumstances. Once this was done, they rested in the most comfortable parts of the clearing they could find. Lily used her power to whittle the large branch, while the others tried to relax and process everything. They had been awake for maybe an hour or two—none of them had a watch, so it was hard to tell. In that time, they discovered that they had been transported to a strange new world, with fewer insects, seemingly fewer people, and monsters. They had many questions, more each moment. Why did Cauldron bring them here? What was that boar-like monster, and why did it evaporate into thin air? Were there any other people, and if so, where?

"How did we get into these clothes, anyways?"

This question earned Aisha glares and odd looks from the others.

"I need something to talk about or I'm gonna go crazy. I know you guys like to be all quiet when stuff's going on and think and stuff, but my leg really hurts, for some reason, and the quiet is driving me crazy!"

Brian sighed. "Maybe you'd like to talk about why you got—"

"Oh, don't get started! Anything else."

"...Fine. Just stay out next time."

"Not exactly in a condition to try anything."

Lily cleared her throat. "Alright, here's a question. Why are the two of you bickering like kids?"

"Brian's my big brother."

"Ah. Got it."

"He worries way too much about me."

"I said I got it."

Lisa stood up and started pacing. "Probably good to start talking, but bad to start arguing."

"We're not—"

"Does anyone here know anything about wilderness survival? Boy Scouts, classes, lots of camping trips?"

There was no response.

"Lily?"

"Wards training doesn't really cover that. Sorry."

Alec groaned. "Well, great. We're stuck in another world, where there's different things, not that it matters because none of us know what to do with things from our world, and there's no sign there's any civilization on this Earth—"

Lisa stopped pacing. "Maybe not."

"Huh?"

"Taylor, you mentioned something unusual in the air? What kind of thing was that?"

"I don't know…something almost electric, really. The bugs don't seem to like it."

"And is it omnipresent, or just around certain places?"

"Pretty much everywhere, at least everywhere in my power's range.."

"Probably not natural. If it was, the bugs would probably adapt to it until it didn't bother them, or at least avoid areas where it was in the air."

Sabah frowned. "So…what do you think it is?"

"No clue. But if it's new enough that bugs haven't adapted to it, and widespread enough that they can't hide from it, it's almost certainly artificial."

"Artificial?"

"Like smog, only probably not fossil fuels. Maybe this world ran out and made something different. Maybe they never figured out fossil fuels, or they have some Tinker-made fuel that replaced them. It's also theoretically possible, though improbable, that this Earth is inhabited by some form of extraterrestrial intelligence—"

Aisha, who had been starting to ignore the conversation, perked up at that last suggestion. "Aliens?"

"It's not impossible, we can't rule anything out yet. But whatever it is, we know we're not alone."

Brian frowned. "We know, or we think?"

"Think, but it's a pretty solid argument. Besides, what else could it be coming from? If it was from a plant or something, it probably wouldn't be everywhere."

"Unless it's coming from all the trees."

"Hard to see why. Considering that it bugs the bugs, it's not going to be anything but a pest deterrent, and I don't think trees do that."

"Some trees do," noted Taylor, "but not many, and I don't think they just spread it everywhere in the forest. That would just encourage the pests to evolve resistance to it."

"My point."

Lily sighed. "Do you always argue? How can you get anything done?"

"It's not arguing, it's debating," Lisa insisted. "It's how we make plans. It lets us all contribute to the discussion, so all of us have to make a mistake for it to get into the final plan."

Lily put the branch to one side. "All of you contribute…except that half of the team."

Alec glared at Lily. "I contribute! Just not as much as the nerds."

"Those three can handle all the planning for all I care," Aisha added.

Rachel shrugged. "They know what they're doing."

Brian cleared his throat. "Not that this isn't a helpful tangent, but I think we've established that there are probably people here. Now, how do we find them?"

"Thank you, um, Brian," Lily said. "I don't suppose there's any direction the pollution is stronger?"

"Not really," Skitter replied. "I mean, it's not all equal, there's sort of waves where it's a bit weaker and a bit stronger, but nothing huge and there's no one direction where it's more prevalent."

Lisa frowned. "These waves…are they linear, or what?"

"Sort of. Why?"

"Are they curved, or straight?"

"They seem straight to me, but if the curve is wide enough I couldn't tell."

"If I had to make a guess, it's probably either exhaust from something, or else there's some pulsing thing in a population center, and I'm leaning towards the first. So, if we go parallel to it, we've got a decent chance of running into one end of a trade route. If Taylor senses that it's curving, we can head towards the center of the curves and see what's there."

Lily folded her arms. "No offense, but that seems like pretty weak logic."

"Strongest logic we've got for any direction. If we hit a stream or river, we can follow it downstream until we hit some settlement, and once we get there we can ask for directions."

"Uh, one problem," Aisha interjected. She pointed to her broken leg, and then to her brother.

Lisa nodded. "Brian, can you walk?"

"Um…if we had a choice, I'd rather rest, and won't be able to go fast, but I should be able to walk. Some, at least. Probably."

"Well, that's one problem out of the way."

"I've been working on some crutches for Aisha," Lily said.

"And that's another."

Sabah raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"Um…I haven't really done any wilderness-survival things, but shouldn't we worry a bit about that? Food and water and shelter?"

"…Probably. Anyone have suggestions?"

There was no response.

"Well, I hope we get to civilization soon."

 


	3. Welcome to Remnant 0.3: Clay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undersiders wander through the woods of Remnant, trying to live off the land and seeing glimpses of civilization.

**Welcome to Remnant 0.3**

**Clay**

Lily didn't know why Cauldron would bring her here. She offered to be Parian's lieutenant after the fight, which probably made her part of the Undersiders (technically), but if that's why, Cauldron would have needed to find out about it in only a few short hours. She had listened to Skitter some time ago, sympathized with her some, but from what she had heard, Lily would hardly be the only person who did so. Probably not the only hero, for that matter. If that was it, why her? For that matter, why not send those goons of Rachel's, Biter and Barker? Hell, why single out parahumans at all?

_It doesn't really matter now. I'm here, in a forest, and that's that._

After defeating the boar monster and figuring out their plans, the Undersiders got moving as quickly as they could. Imp—Aisha—was leaning heavily on her single crutch, moving slowly and carefully to not fall. In case that wasn't enough, Grue—Brian, she had to remember—didn't have any crutch, so he had to be supported by Rachel and Taylor to not put weight on his injured leg. The two of them forced the group to stop every so often to make sure their legs weren't getting worse. Of course the monster hurt their legs. Ever since Lily came to Brockton Bay, it seemed like fate had decided it hated Lily. From what the other Wards said, it sounded like fate just hated Brockton Bay...but they weren't in Brockton Bay anymore, and their luck still sucked.

Lily had always been frightened of Hellhound's…creatures, but as they kept moving, she kept wishing that Cauldron had sent some of her dogs along with the Undersiders. Then, they could ride at good speed through the forest (or at least wouldn't be slowed by their injured members), they wouldn't need to worry so much about attacks from more monsters, and…well, Rachel seemed sad or angry or both due to their absence. At least she was quieter than Aisha and Alec.

They walked slowly, in discomfort and fear, but not always in silence. They talked first about their powers and plans for if they were attacked again. The gist was, Lily would be doing damage with thrown rocks or a long, thin branch she had found, while the others who weren't injured would take branches they had gathered to try and block the advance of the beast. Once tactical discussion ran out, things got more personal. First, they talked about their cape lives, a subject they all shared, one way or another. They shared stories of the horrors of the Slaughternouse Nine and the rest of the terrors which beset Brockton Bay of late.

"At least you managed to do something, ah, Taylor. My power doesn't really have a nonlethal mode, so I just wound up trying to hide."

"I dunno, I think it's more like Panacea used me to do something."

"Not just that—"

"Before that, it was more Glory Girl than me, I think."

Lily sighed. "Can't you just take a compliment?"

"Just another reason she's a dork." Alec said. "Ow!" He rubbed his head where Brian had hit him.

"And why do you keep doing that?"

"He's just complaining," Grue explained. "Haven't you ever had a teammate who bothered you enough to make you want to hit him?"

Alec nodded. "Side benefit of being a villain, you're allowed do that." To prove his point, he punched Brian in the side.

Lisa sighed. "What, no mercy for the wounded?"

Ignoring the others, Lily contemplated the question. "Bothered…Clockblocker came close. Shadow Stalker was a pain, but...in a different way."

Lily's power didn't give her the same insight that Lisa had, but she could still tell by Taylor's reaction that she shared Lily's sentiment. She knew Grue had bad blood with Shadow Stalker, but Skitter...not much. The Undersiders had come out well on top the first time Shadow Stalker fought Skitter.

"…Is there something I'm missing, here?"

"It's…a long story. Maybe later."

That killed the conversation for several minutes, after which it resumed, drifting towards their personal lives.

"I'm sorry about your father."

Taylor sighed. "Yeah…brought it on myself, really. Kinda sucks that the last time I get to spend with my dad, ever, might be the middle of a bomb threat."

"And that he might think you're…dead," added Sabah.

"I had a chance to talk with some of my dad's friends, right after. And Lisa talked with him a bit, and the hospital probably let him know I was fine."

"Wait a second…Lisa as in her?" Lily asked, pointing to the villain in question. "Your teammate?"

"Danny and I had met before, and yes, I was always out of costume. I'm not an idiot, believe it or not."

Alec smirked. "I dunno, bit of a hard sell there."

~0~

After some time, the Undersiders came across a stream, and briefly argued over if they should cross it or not. They came to the conclusion that following this arbitrary direction was less likely to bring them to civilization than following water, and that either way, access to fresh water would be vital.

As the sun got low, the decision was made to set up camp and look for food while there was still some light. Lisa went to find berries or mushrooms which probably weren't toxic, while Taylor gathered edible insects and Lily tried to hunt. She hadn't ever gone hunting before, but neither had anyone else, and she was probably the least unqualified. The others stayed in the clearing, trying to improvise a campsite.

Hunting gave Lily a chance to reflect on what she knew and had learned about the Undersiders. When she woke up, she still didn't quite trust most of them. Sabah, of course, and Taylor to an extent after their conversation, but other than that…two known murderers, not to mention Tattletale or the fact that they had, as a group, demonstrated a disturbing ruthlessness.

Armsmaster and Skitter, though she wasn't named that then, had supposedly set up a deal. Skitter would learn all she could about the Undersiders before joining the heroes and spilling the beans. Instead, she joined the Undersiders. Why, Lily wondered, would someone who wanted to be a hero join up with a bunch of villains? Lily knew why she had, but that had been in large part due to realizing that the Protectorate was corrupt, thanks to that evil Eidolon thing, and in another large part for Sabah. The former probably wasn't the case for Taylor; the latter wasn't impossible, but certainly seemed unlikely.

Now, though, Lily thought she had figured it out. Talking with them, it was easy to forget that they were liars and thieves, murderers and sociopaths. They weren't perfect, but they were people. Aisha and Brian might be two of the most notorious criminals in Brockton Bay, and apparently got on one another's nerves, but they cared for and supported each other, and clearly felt much the same about their teammates—and those feelings were reciprocated, no matter how much Aisha annoyed them. Rachel wasn't good with people, but Lily was pretty sure that she'd be a loyal friend once she got used to her idiosyncrasies. Lisa was still the same sarcastic, manipulative young woman, but she was kind and polite once you stopped being her enemy. Taylor had wanted to be a hero, and it showed. Alec…Alec probably grew on you, judging by how Brian hadn't killed him.

And they were what a team should be. They weren't just coworkers, they were friends. They didn't have to stand each other, but they did. Lily couldn't help but wonder how many other supervillain teams could have been much less dangerous if their members hadn't needed to turn to the underworld to find such teammates, and how many more heroes there would be if they provided the same kind of support. Lily's time in the Wards had been much the opposite. She had been forced to work with people that she had varying degrees of tolerance and respect for. Brockton Bay...Weld was a pleasure to work with and Kid Win was friendly, but Vista was cold and jaded, while Shadow Stalker…Lily sometimes wondered if she was better than some of the villains they fought.

The hunt wasn't a complete waste. Lily managed to hit a rabbit with a rock, carving a neat little hole into its skull. Given how dark it was getting, she decided to head back. When she arrived, there was a fire burning, with Taylor holding a twig with several fat grubs on it over the fire. She waved with her other hand.

Lisa smiled. "Glad to see you didn't get mauled by any boars. Gladder to see you got something! Who knows how to skin and cook a rabbit?"

Silence.

"…Well, it's the thought that counts. Berry?"

They divided the night into thirds. Aisha and Brian, being wounded, would sleep through all of it, if they could sleep on the cold, hard ground. Other than that, everyone would get to try and sleep for two-thirds of the night and be on watch for the third, two at a time. Lily asked to be on watch with Sabah, but Lisa shook her head. "I'm afraid that might...impair your alertness somewhat." Sabah had blushed at that. Instead, Lily got second watch with Lisa, while Sabah had third with Alec.

Lily tried to get some sleep, and after struggling to get comfortable, managed to succeed.

A few hours later, Taylor woke her.

"Is it my watch already?"

"Near as I can tell. I don't think any of us has a wristwatch, but the moon's about a third of the way across the sky."

Lily looked at the moon. "That's…"

"Yeah."

The moon looked like it was shattered into a number of pieces, hanging motionless in the night sky.

"…Night's clear."

"Yeah. Probably because there isn't any smog."

"Probably."

"My watch was pretty quiet. Here's hoping yours is, too."

And so it was. Lily and Lisa sat with their backs to a small fire, jumping a bit at each change in the shadows until Lisa identified it. Rabbit. Deer. Tree branches shifting. Whatever. They also talked some, quietly and sporadically.

"…So. The moon's weird."

"I'm trying not to think about it. I might get a headache."

"It's not that weird, Lisa."

"I mean a literal headache. I get those if I use my power too much."

"Can't you just not use it?"

"To an extent."

"Ah...What's bothering you?"

"If something broke the moon, it should have fallen back together somehow. My power sometimes tries to figure things out I don't need, whether it's how tough Leviathan is twelve percent into his extremities or how a moon might not collapse back onto itself."

"Maybe it was really recent?"

"Not impossible. Not likely. Probably not sufficient."

The time crawled by, as did the moon and stars, but eventually Lisa announced that their watch was over. Lily woke Sabah, Lisa woke Alec, and Lily tried to get a few more hours of sleep before they continued on their journey.

~0~

A few short hours later, Lily was awoken by a foul smell. She sat up, coughing a bit, and saw Alec and Sabah dousing the fire.

Alec smiled apologetically, the first time Lily could think of that he seemed sorry for something he had done. "I was trying to make a nice breakfast for everyone. I really hope the berries taste better cooked."

They didn't, but everyone was still hungry so no one cared. Much. After finishing what remained of last night's berries, they got on their way. The faster they could reach civilization, the better.

It was a slow day. More talking. A few demonic bird-creatures attacked, ravens with the same weird masks as the boar-monster. They were smaller, faster, and flew, so it was hard for Lily to get a good shot at them, but she managed to hit one with enough rocks to kill it and ground the rest before they did more than peck at their faces and the hands they covered their eyes with. Once on the ground, they were easy to kill. Like the boar, they quickly dissolved. After quickly treating their minor but numerous wounds, they continued onward.

A bit before noon, the first definitive sign of civilization presented itself. Some kind of aircraft buzzed overhead. Lily didn't catch a look at it, but apparently it resembled a dark gray airplane with backwards-pointing spikes instead of wings. Taylor confirmed that it left more of the weird electric pollution stuff in its wake. The appearance of the aircraft sparked a bit of an argument over if they should follow the craft one way or the other, or continue down the stream. They knew that it was probably going to and coming from some civilized place, but not how far away it would be. Nor did they know if there was going to be a town downstream at some point. The discussion got heated, but before it could be resolve, they were interrupted by the appearance of four people.

All four were adults, and dressed as strangely as the Undersiders were (though much cleaner). They all looked calm and confident, unlike the Undersiders. There was something about them that bothered Lily, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

The first, and apparent leader, looked a bit like an older Alec, with a white coat, red ruffled shirt, and white pants. His sleeves were unusual, in that the shirt's went partway down his upper arm, while the coat's started a bit above the elbow. On his back was a long sword with a white hilt, and on his shirt was a sort of spiral emblem.

The second was an older-looking man with long brown hair and beard, both long. He wore a bright blue coat over a dull gray shirt and brown pants, and a crumpled blue hat on his head. Perhaps the oddest bit about his outfit was his footwear, which amounted to big yellow rain boots, since the sky was clear and cloudless and the ground was dry and firm. In his hand was a simple, though thick, wooden staff.

The third was thin, with messy black hair and a large hooked nose. He wore a simple long-sleeved red shirt and red leggings under a long blue vest, nearly a sleeveless trench coat. The vest had two emblems, one a gear inside some kind of segmented ring with what looked like a spear on top, the other a stylized rapier in a circle. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his weapon of choice was a rapier, a dark, steely gray one with some odd mechanism in the hilt, vaguely reminiscent of a revolver.

The fourth and final man was bald or shaved, and wore a brown robe with sharply angled sleeves and a yellow emblem of a feather crossed with a lightning bolt on a shoulder. The other shoulder had a pauldron on it, and the way the robe bulged suggested some kind of armor underneath. He wore sandals, and carried a metal staff, clearly far more complicated than a walking stick had any right to be.

The first spoke up. "Excuse me, mind if I ask who you are?"


	4. Welcome to Remnant 0.4: Medicine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undersiders meet a team of informal Huntsmen, who bring them to a village where they can (hopefully) recover.

**Welcome to Remnant 0.4**

**Medicine**

The man wearing white said, "Excuse me, mind if I ask who you are?"

This is either the best thing that happened to us since coming here, thought Brian, or the worst.

On one hand, they had found other people. They were human, presumably, and likely capable of dealing with demonic boars and birds.

On the other hand...After a day and a half with little food, less sleep, and getting attacked by a demonic boar and a few demonic birds, which came right after discovering that you were in a different world, which came right after a night spent fighting a half-human monster making dozens of parahuman minions, right after an evening when their boss made them fight Skitter, right after fighting the most powerful tinker on Earth, right after fighting the fucking Slaughterhouse Nine and…Bonesaw…well, the Undersiders weren't in the best condition to come up with a plausible story. Especially not one that wouldn't clash with what they didn't know of the world. Who knows how these people would react to people from another world?

"We're travelers. We ran into some trouble, and would really prefer to have a chance to rest and get in a decent headspace before we think too much about it."

Luckily, they had Lisa, who was not only a contender for the best con artist in Brockton Bay, if not the East Coast, but also hadn't gotten mauled by a demonic boar, spent less time inside Noelle than many, and probably got a better night's sleep than any of the other Undersiders. This meant she was quick-thinking and clear-headed enough to not only weave a simple cover story, but make the other Undersiders feel like fools for not thinking of it.

"We're hunting for a boarbatusk that's been terrorizing some local villages," the man in white said. "Did you run into it?"

"Yeah, and some…the bird things."

"Nevermores?"

"Yeah. Those."

"I've heard rumors of a nest of them somewhere around here…where'd you run into them?"

Lisa waved vaguely upstream. "Somewhere that direction. We've been following the creek here for a while. Met them along the way."

"Good. Now, I hope you don't mind all the questions, but—"

The man in brown spoke up. "Oh, yes, clever. 'I hope you don't mind doing what you specifically asked me not to do.' See, this is why you're the leader."

White rolled his eyes. "Where did you meet the boarbatusk? And, pardon, but how did you escape?"

Lisa waved upstream and to the left. "Somewhere in that direction, in a clearing. We hadn't found the stream yet. And we defeated it."

"…Really? How?"

"Lots of luck, for one. Hiding in a tree, for me and others."

"Impressive."

"Thank you. Of course, I don't think we could handle it again, especially with our injuries…"

"Well, I think we're done here!" exclaimed the man with the blue coat. "Shall we head home?"

"Or just to the nearest village. We should probably get a healer for these kids. You really shouldn't be fighting grim, you know."

"Oh, thanks. I'll keep that in mind, maybe next time make it easy for them."

What?

"That's not what I meant. I meant, stay home next time. Or get an escort. Or just wait until the next caravan leaves, that's probably best."

Alec chuckled. "Wish it were that easy."

The four turned around and started heading towards what could be assumed to be "home". Once they had done so, most of the Undersiders took a chance to glare at Alec before following. He had hinted at why they—or the people they would pretend to be—were travelling, given them information, restricted the lies they could tell. That could complicate things.

He was tired, hungry, sore, and—though he wouldn't admit it—scared. They all were. It would get worse if they couldn't make a decent lie because someone dropped a detail they couldn't fit in. Brian had been on both sides of that, one time or another. Either way, Lisa made it easier, while stupid mistakes would make it much, much harder.

They kept walking. "There are a lots of bugs around." said the man in red. "Notice that?"

Taylor glanced at him. "Um, hm?"

"Ever since about when we heard you arguing, we noticed lots of bugs. Everywhere. Flies, beetles, spiders. More than usual. Still are."

"Oh, really?"

"Just so. Have you noticed anything?"

Brian glanced at Lisa, noticing Taylor doing the same. Lisa was shaking her head slightly. Don't tell them. Brian understood why. They had all heard stories of people in third-world countries, and even fundamentalist places in the First World, burning parahumans as witches, or demonic, or simply for being too dangerous to keep around. If that was the case here, or if there weren't any parahumans at all until they came…best keep quiet.

Wheels began turning in Brian's head. The problem remained, of course, that the question stood to be answered. It wasn't the best situation.

"…Wow. Just wow," said Alec. "I knew we needed a shower or something, but I had no idea it was that bad."

Nervous laughter from the Undersiders, more genuine laughter from Blue and Brown. The latter added, "Excellent. Truly, none could be better at insulting themselves than you—though you have a bit of a natural advantage over me there."

That bomb defused, the journey continued.

~0~

The Undersiders and the strangers walked through the forest. They introduced themselves—Arthur Madson, a rich family's second son who wanted to hunt the monsters; Raul Sangua, a former soldier who moved across the world to hunt these monsters; Nardi Brak, a wanderer from a rural area who settled here to help Madson hunt monsters; and Rini Houtman, an old hermit who joined the younger men. Their conversation taught the Undersiders useful information; they were in a rural area, near a kingdom called Vale who protected them despite not being part of the kingdom proper. But in the process, the Undersiders had told the monster-hunters about themselves, and Brian couldn't help but wonder if they had told more than they should.

After a few hours, the space by the creek met a path that turned into a dirt road. Not long after, they reached the end of the forest. Beyond were farms, fields of grain and pastures with cows or other animals, all surrounded by stone walls or other solid barriers. Whenever they passed anywhere near a farmer, he greeted the four hunters and they replied in kind, but all involved had work to do, so the conversations didn't get much farther. After perhaps another hour, probably more, of walking through fields, they reached the village in the center.

The village consisted of several dozen buildings, mostly made of stone or brick but with a few made entirely of metal, surrounded by a steel fence reaching about eye-level for Brian. The gate was wooden, banded in steel, and held in place by a thick steel bar. Brian was no architect, but he had the distinct notion that the buildings were built far more sturdily than needed. Between that and the fence…you didn't need to be Tattletale to tell that the village was built to withstand attacks from something. Feeling another spike of pain in his leg whenever he put too much weight on it, Brian had no doubt what.

The whole scene gave Brian a chill. It was…buildings in Brockton Bay were (supposedly) built tough enough to withstand supervillain attacks, bombs, and just about anything short of a direct attack from an Endbringer or Scion or something, but they still made it feel like there was a city. Supermarkets were solidly-built supermarkets, not fortresses. Houses were solidly-built homes, not castles. Banks were…well…it was just the vault that was built like a fortress, the rest was just a reinforced bank. If he had to guess, Brian would say that it might be because people here didn't have the same idea of what a building "should" be like. If the…boarbatusks and nevermores and other monsters had always been attacking, they'd always have needed to defend against them. Maybe that was it?

Brian wasn't the only Undersider taking in the village, nor the only man to notice their response to the level of fortification in the village. Houtman noticed and smirked. "You should see the kingdoms. They have nice, big walls, hold back goliaths."

Sabah's eyes widened. "Walls? Around the entire kingdom?"

To be fair, she was only the quickest to speak. Aisha, Alec, and Rachel also wore obvious expressions of shock, and while the other half of the group was more composed, it wouldn't be hard to tell what they were thinking. Especially if anyone around was good at reading faces, which Brian imagined the group would need someone to be. Another mistake, another set of stories sealed off. How long until the truth was the most believable story?

...Probably still a while, but "these people are crazy" would be much more quickly believed.

People inside the village began noticing the Undersiders before they even got through the gate. In basically every house, men, women, and children of all descriptions went to the windows to gawk or even came outside to get a better look at them. The four warriors were walking quickly and with purpose, but they still exchanged greetings with everyone they passed. They hadn't passed more than half a dozen buildings before they were stopped, by a little girl—probably about eight or so—holding a piece of wood carved to look like a rifle.

"Mister Madson!"

"Hey, Min."

"Look what I learned to do!" She held up her "rifle", ran at Madson, and jumped. Madson drew his sword and swung it forward, blocking the rifle. A flash of yellow energy arced between the sword and Min, and she flew backwards, landing on the roof of a nearby building.

A woman, presumably Min's mother, began shouting. "Minerva Ayala Aurelius! What have I told you about climbing around on roofs?"

"But mom…"

Madson chuckled, and moved on. "Raul, can you remind me to talk with Min when we've dropped these kids at Aster's?"

"I can."

"Thanks."

It finally hit Brian, and he felt like an idiot for not realizing it earlier. They're not watching us, they're watching them! The hunters were hunting monsters attacking the village, that alone probably made them basically the local superheroes. They apparently also spent plenty of time getting to know the villagers, and…there was other stuff that Brian knew was there, and wanted to think he would have noticed if his leg wasn't distracting him. The eight young adults following them probably wouldn't be noticed, if it wasn't for the fact that they were with the heroes.

...Except maybe as strangers. Well, that could be a problem. Brian was born and raised in Brockton Bay, and while it was no New York, it was still a big city. Passing people you didn't know, had never seen before? Pretty normal. But this was a small town, a village. Everyone knew everyone, and strangers stuck out like sore thumbs. Especially strangers who couldn't explain why they were here.

They were lead to the house of who Brian presumed was the doctor or healer or shaman or whatever they had here. Brian and Aisha were put in the two beds in the room set aside for patients, while Aster prepared her medicine. Stitches, for both their boarbatusk wounds and the cuts the bird things left on most everyone. A powder Brian guessed was for Aisha's cast. More mixtures he couldn't start to guess the purpose of.

She started her work. Nothing Brian hadn't endured, for the most part, just more extreme and done by someone reputable (probably) who had more than the bare minimum of training and experience (he hoped). Nothing to do but wait, really. You don't want to distract someone sewing up your head...and they were still concerned about revealing or implying stuff they didn't want the locals to think.

The operations were finished. Brian and Aisha got to keep the beds, with the others sitting on the floor or standing. The doctor sighed, relieved at this being over, and smiled. "I haven't had this many patients in a while…Is there anything I can get for you?"

"Food," suggested Alec.

"Food would be good," agreed Lisa, "but I don't think miss…what's your name?"

"Aster."

"It feels odd to call an elder by her first name, ma'am."

"Aster Acea, then."

"Miss Acea doesn't have enough food for all of us, I'd imagine. We haven't eaten in a while, and we have had a rough few days. But in the short term…I'd like to know where we are. Do you have an atlas?"

"I think Oak has a decent one I can get."

"I'll come with. We're probably going to be staying here a while, I figure I should get to know the locals."

"I can't think of any reason why not."

Lisa left with Aster. Brian lay in bed, trying to let the stress that had been building up for hours—days—week—flow out of me.

It didn't work.


	5. Welcome to Remnant 0.5: Lips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tattletale has gathered some information about the village the Undersiders are in and the world the village is in, and shares it with the other Undersiders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who don't know much about RWBY, this will be an infodump about Remnant. For those of you who do, this will be an infodump about what the Undersiders know about Remnant. For both, there's some characterization and headcanon explanation.

 

**Welcome to Remnant 0.5**

**Lips**

Aisha relaxed for the first time in days. Weeks, maybe. The Nine didn't leave a lot of breathing room for anyone, and the world didn't want to give her a chance to breathe. Then Dragon and Coil and Noelle and the weird demon things…but right now, the world was giving her a chance to relax.

The others were taking this various shades of badly, but Alec and Aisha were fine. They didn't leave much behind. Games and computers, cash and infamy, all those material things. Yeah, that sucked big time, but not that big, you know? One thing the two of them had in common was a fucked-up family. Alec was raised by a supervillain, Aisha was raised by a…well, mostly by Brian, if she was honest, and he was usually with Dad, who she saw sometimes but never really bonded with. Neither Aisha nor Alec had many roots in Brockton Bay, and most of them got brought here.

All things considered, things were fine for Aisha. Aside from the broken leg, and the fact that her friends were all miserable. And that they were at pretty much constant risk of being killed by demon boar-bird-things. Or maybe these people. If there was one thing being an Undersider taught Aisha, it's that paranoia is always a safe bet.

Not that Aisha had to try hard to get paranoid. The room had a couple windows in it, but they resembled what you might expect in a military base or prison or maybe a PRT building, more than a house. In case that wasn't bad enough, there wasn't much else in the way of decoration; the room was simple and practical and boring. Also a bit crowded. Seven teens in a room made for one doctor, a couple patients, and maybe a visitor or assistant was tight for those unlucky enough to not get a bed. Sabah and Lily were sitting in one corner, Taylor was leaning on a cabinet next to Brian, Rachel sat near the door, and Alec was standing in the middle of the room, pacing a bit. Lisa was still getting the atlas.

"How long's it been?" asked Rachel.

"We still don't have watches," Alec said. "How would we know?"

"I don't know! It's just…how long should it have been?"

"Don't worry," Brian said. "She's not stupid. If something bad happened…would happen to her, she'd figure it out before it was too late and get us."

"Unless it was a monster attack or something," Alec said. "Raar."

Taylor shook her head. "If the village was about to be attacked, I'd probably notice them. If there was an attack underway, all of us definitely would."

"And Lisa would notice before anyone else," Lily added. "She..."

Rachel shrugged. "I guess. But why is she taking so long?"

"We don't know," Taylor said. "Maybe she's delaying, trying to get some impressions of what this place is like. Maybe she found someone important, and is trying to get him more likely to like us. Maybe this Oak's house is really, really far away. We don't know, and I don't think it matters that much. She'll come back, sooner or later, and we'll figure out what to do from there."

Rachel nodded.

A few more minutes passed, everyone still brooding a bit over everything going on. Or maybe several—like Brian had said, they didn't have watches, and there was no clock in the room. Aisha heard a door open, footsteps, then the door to the room opened. In came Lisa, carrying a large book.

"Thanks for all the help, Ms. Acea."

"It was my pleasure. Is there anything else you need?"

"I think a little time to talk things over with just my friends would help right now."

"Well...alright. Sure you don't need you head looked at?"

"I probably just need to rest, I'll be fine."

"Well…Let me know if you need anything else."

"Of course." Acea left the room.

Lisa closed the door behind the doctor. "First off," she said, "she's just in the next room, listening in case we decide we need something, or if someone starts screaming in pain, or whatever, so keep it down. Especially if it is about…"

"Anything dangerous?" suggested Taylor.

"Yup. Second off, names."

Brian frowned. "Names?"

"Why can't we use out normal names?" asked Rachel. "Who'd know us?"

"Well, to start with, the four we introduced ourselves to in the forest. But we only told them our first names, which is good. I got a general hunch about the names around here, what people expect from names."

"What do you mean?" Sabah asked.

"Well...you know how you wouldn't expect a German to be named Jean Valjean or someone from Japan to be named Shaun Jones? The names here follow patterns, too. The biggest one, the one I've been able to definitely identify, is color. First: Aster Acea, next room over. Asteracea is some kind of plant, and what kind of clothes is she wearing?"

Sabah spoke up. "Um, her dress is mostly like a wrap dress, but the sleeves remind me more of a shirtdress, and the—"

"Sorry," Lisa said, "I wasn't specific. What color is she wearing?"

"Mostly green," Sabah said. "Some yellow."

Lisa nodded and held up one finger. "Now, remember little miss Aurelius, the little girl we passed on our way into the village?"

"Aurelius is the Latin word for gold," Alec said, rolling his eyes. "And she was wearing yellow and brown. The brown was probably dirt, does that count?"

Lisa held up a second finger, ignoring Alec's question. "Does anyone want to guess what color Oak's clothes were?"

"Brown?" Brian said. "Maybe green?"

Lisa smiled and held up a third finger.

"There were a lot of others. I stopped to chat with as many people as I could, get their names. The hunter guy in red and blue? Raul Sangua. Surname is a mixture of sangre and agua, blood and water. Little girl in pink, name Lily. Big gray guy, name Remus."

"That's...odd," noted Lily. "Why do they do that?"

Lisa smirked. "Well, on the bright side, the PRT still thinks I'm omniscient."

"Bad news," Aisha said, we're screwed if anyone cares about out names."

"Not necessarily." Lisa pointed to herself. "Lisa. I remember reading that 'lis' means 'fox' in Portuguese or Polish or something." She pointed at Sabah and Lily in their corner. "Lily, a flower. Sabah, do you know what your name means?"

"...Sunrise, I think. Or sunshine."

Lisa nodded. "Good." She continued pointing her finger. "Brian, brown. Unfortunate, but it's there. Aisha, ash, which is gray."

"Is the color-name-thing really that arbitrary?" Alec asked.

"Seems so. And Rachel means 'ewe'."

Rachel looked Lisa and frowned. Alec started to crack up.

"Like a sheep."

Rachel glared at Lisa, and then at Alec, who burst out laughing. After a few seconds, someone knocked on the door.

"Everything's alright," Lisa said. "Laughter's the best medicine. We could use a bit more, and we've still got stuff to sort out."

There was a pause, and in the quiet everyone heard Acea walk away. After a moment, the conversation resumed, a bit quieter.

"Right. Perhaps not the best fit for her, but it fits her clothes."

"I see," Brian said. "And what about me? My clothes are black, not brown."

"I also notice you've left out Taylor and our most esteemed member," Alec said.

"Luckily, surnames work, too. Hey, I don't make the rules, I just observe them. The question is, what names would work?"

"Blanche," Alec said immediately. "It means snow. Unless you can think of anything meaning 'smart' or 'the Great' that would fit white?"

Lisa snorted. "If I did, I wouldn't inflict it on the world."

Alec turned to Rachel. "See, it's because if you—"

"I'm not an idiot. You are."

"Oh. What an incredible burn. It hurts."

"Shut up."

Taylor glanced out a window. "What about me?"

"Do you see something?" Lisa asked.

"No."

"I was thinking maybe 'Violet' for your false surname," Lisa said, "but that's not quite right—"

"It works. Fits, I think. We can always just say my clothes faded and get different ones, if it comes up."

Lisa nodded. "I'm thinking Brian and Aisha should take on the false surnames of Sturm, which should help deal with similar problems Brian has. As for the rest...not important, I suppose, but 'Wilbourn' and 'Lindt' don't really fit this world. Well, Lindt kind of does, but it's not the kind of association you'd want in a world where names seem to mean a lot more than just something to call people by."

"How sure are you?" Taylor asked. "Of all of this, I mean."

"Of colors, maybe eighty-five percent. Of how important names are...forty or fifty, but better safe than sorry. And now, for the part you all came here for."

Lisa opened the book she had brought in to one of the first pages. "This is Remnant, the world where we find ourselves."

It was a map of what Aisha assumed was the whole world. She identified five or six continents, or maybe only three if the one in the north and the one in the southeast were just big islands and the continents in the east were considered just one, like some people thought North and South America were. Out of those three continents, the two little ones looked more like dragons standing on rocks than actual continents. Even the not-dragon-looking ones looked weird; Aisha was pretty sure coastlines shouldn't be so jagged, and the orientation of the island chain things looked weird, too.

Lisa pointed to the big continent, the one that didn't look like a dragon on anything. "This is Vytal, the continent we're on. It has two kingdoms, Vale and Vacuo," she said, pointing to each kingdom's capital. "There are two other kingdoms, Atlas and Mystral. See these dotted lines?"

"Borders?" Lily guessed.

"Nope. The kingdoms are literally just the single cities. Technically, at least; they have close ties with nearby towns and such, even though they aren't technically bound to the kingdoms by fealty or constitutions or anything."

"So, the kingdoms are just a city each?"

"Basically. The dotted lines are the approximate boundaries of the 'Civilized Zone' around each kingdom. Huntsmen in the kingdoms patrol those areas and deal with any Grimm threats they find. Beyond that are the Wilds, with the occasional wild town or village, beyond the typical protection of the kingdoms. That's where basically everyone's assuming we're from, so our stories will need to work with that. Luckily, smaller wild settlements get destroyed and built pretty frequently, so we shouldn't have too much to worry about from that."

Lisa turned several pages. "This is the area around Vale. This is where we are," she explained, pointing to a spot near the dotted line. "We probably showed up around here, so it would probably make sense to say our village was around here. I'm thinking next to this stream and this mountain. Sound good?"

No one spoke up. After a moment, Lisa pushed the atlas to the side. "We'll need to have a reason to have left...but like I said, those towns get destroyed a lot, so we can just say our village got smashed and we ran. Simple. But next on Remnant 101, Huntsmen. They're warriors who fight monsters called Grimm. We met a few Grimm on the way here, I don't think I need to remind you. There's a lot more than two kinds, and I get the impression that they get a lot bigger and nastier than the boar one we fought. It's called a boarbatusk, by the way. Not sure you caught that."

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me that the thing that almost beat us, would have beat us if we didn't have someone who can hurt Endbringers on our side, was a little one? That's fu—"

Taylor glared at Alec. "Keep your voice down."

"Yes, mom."

"I'm not sure my bolts actually hurt Leviathan," Lily said.

"Well, that changes—"

"On the note of Endbringers," Lisa said, "the big ones definitely aren't on their level. The people here don't show any signs of the specter of impending apocalypse which everyone back home feels.

"The Grimm are hunted by Huntsmen. They're a bit like knights, I think. They don't all have noble birth or whatever, but most are born to rich families—upper-middle class or higher, by our standards. They're trained from a pretty early age, probably starting by the time puberty starts at the latest, and their weapons use 'folding-frame' technology. I don't know what that is, but from what I do know, it sounds complicated and expensive. There's also people who aren't technically Huntsmen, who didn't get trained at a Huntsman school and usually don't have a Huntsman's folding-frame weapon, but still hunt the Grimm. If Huntsmen are knights, these would probably be mercenaries or elite soldiers or something. Our quartet falls into that category, I'm guessing."

Aisha frowned. "Um, what?"

"Lisa means the four people who tried to save us," Rachel said.

"I dunno about you," Alec interjected, "but I feel safe. Not as safe as before I learned we almost got killed by a baby Grimm, but still safe."

"Moving on," Lisa said, "remember the pink girl I mentioned? She had mouse ears."

Alec frowned. "Uh…you mean, like, there's a Disney World here, right, not…furries?"

"Well, the ears are furry, just like normal mouse ears. And she's not alone. Her parents have mouse ears, and from Aster's reaction when I asked about them, they're pretty common. They're called faunus, and I don't think they're all mice."

Aisha sighed. "Okay…that's just weird. Someone pinch me, I don't like this dream."

"They're real. Keep—"

"Ow! I wasn't serious!"

"Keep an eye out. Let's see…names, kingdoms, Grimm, Huntsmen, faunus. Ah, I've got it. Dust." They way she emphasized the word, Aisha figured she wasn't talking about the kind that got everywhere and turned into bunnies.

"Dust?"

"Yup. Passed by the general store, noticed what I thought was powdered gems or something until I realized it was glowing. It's called Dust, and apparently it's so ubiquitous that everyone's expected to know about it. That reminds me, if anyone asks, I got hit in the head with a branch about an hour and a half before we met the Huntsmen."

"What is the dust?" Lily asked. "Why was it glowing?"

"Like I said, I'm not omniscient. I'm leaning towards it being used as some kind of power source, but that's still speculative. Whatever it is, there's not much call for it right here, but some Huntsmen use more or less raw Dust and it's apparently useful for improvising things if you're very careful and a bit desperate. Don't know much more just yet."

Taylor cleared her throat. "Let's summarize. Some of us need to change our names, because our real names would stand out. This world has four kingdoms, which are just cities, and which have monster hunters called Huntsmen, who hunt monsters called Grimm, like the ones that attacked us. Their folding-frame weapons sometimes use Dust, which is important for other things. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Lisa said, "but nothing I've found out yet. Anyone else feel like dinner?""


	6. Welcome to Remnant 0.6: Hearth

**Welcome to Remnant 0.6**

**Hearth**

Dinner was at a house belonging to one of the bigger farm families, the Hasenkamps, who lived in one of the bigger houses. Two brothers and a sister, all grown up, all but the one brother married, and their parents were living there too, along with their kids, five between the two couples. Also one of their distant cousins, and they usually had some guests from town, an old couple tonight in addition to us. Lots of names, most of which were basically missed by Rachel. She didn't mind too much. What kind of idiot would expect them to remember a dozen new names for people they'd just met?

It was a foreign environment, but it didn't bother Rachel as much. Dealing with people was always like that, for her. These people looked a little different, smelled a little different, acted a little different, but they sounded the same. And Rachel hadn't known what to do with people, not really, not even before she triggered. After…everything was off, even worse. Maybe it should have bugged her, how the others got along pretty well and she usually didn't get along with them, but it worked well enough and she had her dogs. The Undersiders were probably the best friends she'd ever had, regardless. Maybe that should have bothered her, but it didn't.

Now they were here. Rachel was angry about losing her dogs, but aside from that, she didn't care. There were a lot of people in Brockton Bay who listened to her, which she liked, but she could do without it. There were a lot of people she didn't like there, too. Most of the people she actually liked were brought here with her. So were Aisha and Alec, and the two new people, but Rachel could live with that, too.

The food was good, and everyone was hungry. They hadn't eaten much since they left Brockton Bay, just some berries and a couple grubs. The food wasn't exactly like food from home tasted, but it was close enough. Steak, potatoes, some salad made of some kind of green leaves. Lettuce or cabbage or something. It was really filling; even though she felt like she was starving, she felt full after just a second helping.

Rachel knew the best way to not give things away was to not say anything. She was good at that. The family and the old people talked a lot. So did Lisa, but she was smart enough to not give anything away. Alec and Aisha were talking a lot too. Rachel hoped they didn't give anything away. The Hasenkamps talked a lot about farming. Rachel knew farming was important, otherwise no one would have food, but she didn't care about it. It was important to them, though, and besides, she didn't have anything she wanted to talk about. Rachel just stayed quiet.

She wondered if this world had dogs. It had people, but that might not mean much. Earth Aleph had dogs and people, but it also had America and Europe and stuff, not Vytal and Vale and stuff. And neither had Grim. And these people didn't seem exactly like Earth humans; their eyes were kinda big, their noses and mouths were kinda small, their hair and eyes were sometimes weird colors, so maybe they were different. If they were dinosaur people or something weird like that, there probably wouldn't be dogs. But then there wouldn't be cows or horses or sheep either, and they saw all those in the pastures. At least, they were things that looked like sheep and cows, and they hadn't gotten too close to the walls. Anyways, weird faces weren't scales. So they probably had dogs, too.

Eventually, dinner was done and the Undersiders got to leave. Aisha ate too much. She, Brian, and Lisa were going to go back to the doctor's house to rest, just in case. The rest found arrangements with other people. Taylor would be in the general store owner's house, Sabah and Lily would be sleeping in the Haskenkamps' spare room, Alec went with the older couple, and Rachel was going to sleep at the rancher's house.

The rancher's name was Ovid Oak. His names started with the same letter, which was a little weird, but probably less weird here. His house was right by the wall, full of books, and he had dogs, three sheepdogs. They weren't much like any breed that Rachel knew, but they reminded her of sheepdogs and Oak was a rancher, so he probably ranched sheep. Makes him a shepherd, but that's not really a common word anymore. At least, not on Earth. Oak also had a chicken coop, and some other birds, and a rabbit, and a couple cats and a few kittens he wanted to give away. He offered one to Rachel, but she didn't want one. She said she was a dog person. Oak understood. He said he'd offer a puppy, but he didn't have any and if he did he'd probably try to raise them to be more sheepdogs.

Rachel remembered that they were going to be doing a little work, for room and board and healing, and a bit of money if they did well. Rachel was going to be helping Oak with ranching, but she didn't know what anyone else was doing. Didn't pay attention. Aisha and Brian probably wouldn't do much, they were still recovering. Maybe Lisa wouldn't, either, they thought she hit her head. She got Sabah to show off her power, so maybe she'd end up weaving or something.

Rachel went to sleep on a couch-like thing. Basically a couch. She didn't have much else to do, so she basically went to bed after making it. Good to get sleep, and she didn't get enough last night.

~0~

Rachel woke up. It took her a moment to remember everything. Forest. Monsters. Remnant. Dogs. Oak. Right.

Oak got up, too, and prepared breakfast for them. Toast, ham, milk. Pretty good. They went to work. Boring, exhausting, but a lot better than the exciting exhausting things Rachel was used to. Oak mentioned that she was really good with the dogs, and she thanked him. He tried talking a few other times, but Rachel ignored him or gave short answers, and he stopped. He didn't seem to mind too much. Probably. She hoped.

After several hours, it was time for lunch, so they went back and ate. The food was still good. Rachel was starting to realize that she didn't need to eat quite as much as she did back home. She decided to ask Lisa about that. Then they went back to work, then dinner. Dinner was pretty early, so that she would have a chance to meet with her friends. Oak said she worked really hard, and that he appreciated the help, so he paid her with a few cards that looked kinda like credit cards but probably weren't.

Rachel decided Oak was nice. He was good to his dogs, and didn't bother her, and didn't just think about himself. That's more than Rachel could say for most people she had met.

~0~

They met up in the middle of town. Brian and Aisha were still on crutches, of course, and they slowed them down some, though not as much as before they got crutches, and they weren't running from anything so it didn't matter much, but it was annoying sometimes. Alec was in a bad mood, his hands were dirty, and he complained about a sore back. He had apparently spent the day doing whatever chores the couple had that needed to be done. Aisha's hands were dirty, too, and she was a bit sore, but she didn't complain. Lily was worried, because she showed the Huntsmen we met her power, but Lisa didn't mind and she calmed down. She was doing stuff with them, and Lisa said they were seeing if she could be a Huntsman. Lisa said she was helping Aster with her healing work, and mentioned that the yellow girl from yesterday fell off a roof into a ditch.

"She probably fell twenty-five or thirty feet. She was barely injured..."

Taylor was working in the general store, mostly selling things to people while the owner organized the stuff in back. Sabah was working with clothes, like Rachel had thought, and said they might get some cloth for her to make clothes for the rest of them. The people she was making clothes for were really impressed.

They were walking while talking, and they were past the walls by the time they finished talking about their days. At the gate, someone asked why they were going outside, and warned them to be careful and not to go into the woods. We didn't need to, Lisa said, we just needed to get somewhere without people around. Taylor confirmed that there wasn't anyone around as far as she could tell, and mentioned that she'd been hiding bugs in the fields. This world didn't have as many, and people noticed when she brought out a lot of bugs like she was used to, so she had to hide them. She expressed concern that she'd be blamed for it, but Lisa reassured her. She said that some people noticed, but didn't think a lot about it yet, and definitely didn't think they were responsible.

The first thing they talked about was something called semblance. Apparently, that's what they call superpowers here, or maybe something else. Lily had asked if they were the same, and Lisa said she wasn't omniscient. The PRT must not give much information to the Wards, or maybe they just don't have an idea what she's doing. Rachel remembered Armsmaster saying she had some kind of weakness-detecting power and figured things out from what that told her, but maybe something happened since then that changed their minds about that. It didn't really matter. Semblance wasn't common, and Lily didn't get much conclusive information about it. Enough to maybe be either way.

Lily learned a bit about Huntsmen and Grim. Huntsmen used something called Ora, which she didn't ask about because she thought it was probably common knowledge. Lisa agreed that it probably was, at least a little.

Rachel decided to mention what she noticed about the food.

"The food's really…filling."

"Yeah," said Lisa, "I noticed. It might be something about the soil. It wouldn't surprise me if humans evolved differently, too, eating more but being stronger, healing faster, that kind of thing. It's probably because of the Grim, which were probably a bigger threat to Remnant's people than wild animals ever were to Earth's people."

Brian asked about the bugs, if the plants were so good, why weren't there many bugs? Lisa admitted she didn't know. Taylor apparently asked someone about the glowing dust, and learned that it was mined from the ground by a group called Shnees or something like that. The stuff in this store, at least, maybe other people mined the dust. Lisa wondered if that could have something to do with the dirt being fertile.

They also talked about plans. Lily mentioned that the Huntsmen thought she might be able to be one, and said she wanted to go to Vale to see if she could learn to do that. Lisa disagreed with becoming a Huntsman, because it would be expensive to get a decent weapon and there was tuition, and anyways the group should stick together.

The then said, "We should probably go to Vale, though. I think we'd do better back in a big city than in the country. Besides, we might be able to do something like what we were doing in Brockton Bay."

Lily said she wasn't interested in being a supervillain. Aisha pointed out that she was willing to do so earlier. Brian glared at her.

"Not really what I meant," Lisa said. "I mean, like when we dealt with the ABB and the Merchants and those other gangs, not like the bank or the warlording. Cleaning up the city, not taking it over."

Alec said he wouldn't mind taking over Vale, so Brian hit him with a crutch.

Rachel liked that idea. It would mean getting back to normal, more or less. Besides, in a city, there were probably stray dogs, and bastards who beat their dogs or made them fight or something and needed to be stopped, their dogs rescued. Dogs would be good.

The others…mixed. Lisa was for it, of course, and so was Brian. Alec was for it, too. Lily and Sabah were skeptical about the what they'd-been-doing part, though they liked the idea of going to Vale. Aisha liked the idea of staying in the country.

And Taylor…she said, "I dunno. I feel like…being in the Undersiders, I think it's taken something from me. Don't get me wrong, it's been good, but…I don't think I really want to be Skitter anymore, if I don't need to be. I don't want to be the Taylor I used to be, either. That Taylor was in a bad place, basically alone, and she hid from all her problems. Skitter was better, she had friends, but her solutions were...brutal, and she was just too intense. They both kept secrets from people who mattered, that they probably shouldn't have. I don't want to do more of that. Just being Taylor, living a normal life, I think I'd like to try that."

"Normal?" said Alec. "Kinda a foreign concept to us."

"Still, I see her point," said Lisa. "How about a compromise. I'm not hearing a lot of objection to just going to Vale, so can we agree on that? We can work on details later."

Basically everyone agreed. Brian pointed out that they didn't even know if there was any organized crime in Vale worth stopping. So, that was the plan. It sounded okay.


	7. Welcome to Remnant 0.7: Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undersiders are ready to move on to the mighty Kingdom of Vale. After travelling alongside a team of Huntsmen and other travelers for a week, they make a quick stop at a grave. While the Huntsmen investigate some nearby creatures of Grimm, the Undersiders pay their respects for all those who died at home, and for all they left behind.

**Welcome to Remnant 0.7**

**Rose**

The Undersiders—Sabah and Lily having pretty much fully accepted the title by now—stayed in the village of Meadow-Creek for a few weeks. They learned all sorts of things about the world. They also learned about its inhabitants—the massive and friendly Hasenkamp family, the quiet Napolini family of faunus, little orphan Amara and her friends Alice, Minerva, and Rinus who all wanted to be Huntsmen, Ryan the hunter who also wanted to be a Huntsman, Aster's nephew Paul Acea, and all the rest.

They also learned about the four Huntsmen, who usually weren't in town (at least, not this one). After the first couple days, they went to make sure the boarbatusk they killed was, in fact, gone; after that, they wandered between villages in the area, checking for reports of Grimm. They came back to Meadow-Creek fairly often, probably because of Lily. The Huntsmen were probably mainly interested in her because of her power, which they figured would be good for a Huntsman.

Which, in all honesty, it probably would be. It did save the Undersiders from that boarbatusk. Maybe she'd make a good Huntress, maybe there was a chance that she could get into Beacon, the Huntsman school, but then she almost definitely couldn't be with the rest of the group, especially not Sabah. Lisa had said that they wouldn't accept Sabah unless they wanted someone really good with cloth. That hurt, but Lisa quickly noted that she didn't expect most of the other Undersiders could make it. Most didn't fit the proper psychological profile, she said, and the ones who did weren't good enough at fighting in ways that worked against Grimm. The only one with a chance was Brian, and it was an even slimmer chance than Lily's.

Sabah hoped that Lily felt as bad about the idea of her leaving the rest behind to go to Beacon as Sabah did.

They didn't learn just about specific people. They also learned more general facts. Female Huntsmen were called Huntresses. Faunus were once confined to a place called the Menagerie, a place whose name was so uninspired and tactless that Sabah figured Empire Eighty-Eight would have condemned the namers. Atlas was a center of technology (lots of tinkers, maybe?) and also had the only standing military not composed of Huntsmen. ("Yet another thing that makes them like knights," Lisa had said. "How long until Remnant's Agincourt?") Basically everyone had one kind of outfit that they almost always wore, except when the circumstances required formal wear of some kind, and sometimes replaced for a different one that they always wore for the next while. Some faunus were fighting against oppression by blowing up things. ("Glad we don't have that kind of thing in our world," Lily had said. "Oh, yes, supervillains are much better," Alec countered.) People had a wider range of hair and eye colors—little Lily the faunus had pink eyes, while one of the Hasenkamps had bluish-gray hair. And so on, and so forth.

They knew a lot of the outlines, but not the details. They didn't know what all Dust could do, or why. They didn't know if there were trigger events, though Lisa was pretty sure that superpowers were either what they called Semblances or nonexistent. They didn't know why Grimm attacked people or how to fend them off. They didn't know what was up with the moon, which broke apart and came together instead of going through normal phases. They did know that Aura was important to Huntsmen, and other people who fought, but not what it was, except that people thought it was connected to Semblances. Each time Aura, Dust, and so many other unanswered questions were brought up, Lisa was more sure that they were ones that even people living in the deepest wilds should have known. It sure would be nice if she was omniscient.

She was a good liar, though. She managed to weave their tangle of mistakes and slips into a story that convinced basically everyone. Sabah had been from Mystral (taken directly from her own clumsy cover-up), but her parents moved to the lands outside of Vale to get away from the crowds. Lily was from the same town they moved to, where her parents moved to from some islands to the west, and we eventually moved farther from Vale to enjoy nature more. Rachel had been from deep in the wilds, but her village was destroyed so she and other survivors came to their village. Brian and Aisha were from Vale, but they ran from home, not unlike Alec, whose fictional father was fittingly based on Heartbreaker. Taylor and Lisa hadn't made any mistakes and didn't pose any potential issues, so they were just born and raised in the village. It got destroyed by Grimm, they fled, mostly having been friends and acquaintances before. Not completely lying there—their hometown was destroyed by monsters, repeatedly, they were varying degrees of acquaintanceship, and they did leave, if unwillingly.

The days turned to weeks, blurred into each other. Finally, Brian and Aisha were healed. Aster remarked that it took longer than she expected, though it didn't scar much so there was some positive. The four Huntsmen wanted to go to Vale, and some other people did, too. The Hasenkamp cousin was going to pick up some supplies they couldn't get in Meadow-Creek. The Napolinis wanted to move to Vale, supposedly to be around other faunus, but Lisa said they were most likely considering joining the White Fang. Amara almost came with, too, but her friends wanted to come along, their parents refused, and that was that. Four unofficial Huntsmen, four mouse-faunus, a farmer, and eight aliens set out on the road to Vale, the village sharing tearful goodbyes for the residents and less emotional ones for the guests.

~0~

The road was long. If they had a car, they probably could have made it in a few hours, but cars were for the wealthy in Remnant. Walking, it would take about a week, and walk they did.

The road was mostly dull. They talked with the other travelers some, and once a couple creatures which the Huntsmen identified as young beowolves attacked the group, but aside from that, little happened. Considering their journey to Meadow-Creek, Sabah wasn't complaining. Certainly, they learned a lot. The Hasenkampf cousin, Piroska, felt left out by her distant relatives due to their closer familial connection. The Napolini parents and elder brother were distrustful of non-faunus, but Lily didn't mind talking to the humans journeying with them, even Rachel, who still scared Sabah a bit. Nardi Brak was sarcastic and unkind on the surface, and as far as Sabah could see, he was like that to the core; Rini Houtman liked him, but he was crazy.

Just outside of Vale, the Huntsmen wanted to visit somewhere not quite on the path. It was up a cliff, they explained. They wanted Lily to come with, but didn't mind one way or the other if the others did. Piroska and the Napolinis decided to head onwards, Vale being in sight, but the Undersiders decided to accompany Lily and find out what was so important.

They climbed up the steep mountain path, clearly well-used but not maintained or developed, little more than a line of earth compacted by just enough feet that little grass was growing on it. At times, it grew steep, at one point almost being more a climb than a hike. The air grew cold, and eventually they saw snow. Eventually, they reached the end of the path, and found themselves atop in a forest, far above the city below.

It was a breathtaking sight. Below the cliff's edge lay Vale, a massive city, bigger than Brockton Bay, probably about the size of Chicago or New York, maybe even as big as those cities had been before the Endbringers destroyed some and made the rest shrink from fear. The buildings looked more graceful, though, almost unreal, more like a painting of a city than the real thing. Beyond Vale was the ocean, deep blue and vast, and above floated a number of aircraft of alien design. Sabah thought the view alone was worth the climb, but the Huntsmen disagreed. They continued along the cliff's edge, standing a healthy distance back.

"Rini," asked Brak, "is there any particular reason you haven't made that path a bit…less taxing?"

"This is no a town, to be shaped to the whims of man. This is a wild place, and home to one whose rest is not to be disturbed."

Arthur apparently noticed the concern on some of the Undersiders' faces. "She's dead," he reassured.

Rini didn't seem to notice. "I reshape the earth when I must, and here, I must not."

The two of them bickered a bit for the next minute or so, before lapsing into silence. Some time later, they reached a clearing. Sabah saw what looked like a rock, but evidently was what the Huntsmen were visiting. As they approached, she could tell that it wasn't just a rock—it was a carved rock, angular, a marker of some kind. Probably a grave, considering what Rini and Arthur had said.

They arrived at the gravestone. It was a simple geometric shape, a couple rectangles at angles to each other and the ground for the front and back, forming triangular sides. The inscription was what interested Sabah and the others. The upper half was dominated by a large rose, he tips of the petals bent, almost looking like flame. Sabah glanced at the words below, before studying the rose more. It was simple, but elegant.

"Summer Rose," muttered Alec. "Thus kindly I scatter."

"Just so," breathed Raul.

"In case you can't guess—" whispered Brak, "—which, let's face it, you can't—this is the grave of Summer Rose, a Huntress."

"Um…" Sabah wasn't sure what to say. "Was she…a friend?"

"No," Raul muttered. "None of us ever met her."

"Then—"

"It's not often that a Huntsman dies," muttered Arthur. "Certainly not so young."

The Undersiders glanced at each other. Sabah couldn't claim to know exactly what any of them were thinking. Perhaps Leviathan, or the Nine, or Noelle. Perhaps Lily thought of someone she lost in New York, before she came to Brockton Bay, and perhaps the others were thinking of someone they had killed or maimed. Sabah was thinking about her friends and dependents, casualties to the Nine, modified to look like some of the worst serial killers in the world and then released as decoys. One thing was for certain, they were all thinking about how different Remnant was from home.

Arthur continued, unaware of these dark thoughts. "When one does, it's a tragedy that is felt by the entire kingdom, and every Huntsman in the world. The real Huntsmen all sort of know each other, at least by name. People like us, we know them. Summer probably wasn't the best Huntress in the world, but she was…better than most, I think. She wasn't just a full-time Huntress, either, she had a family."

The Undersiders were numb to the story the Huntsman painted. Sabah, at least, was thinking of the New Wave, a family split apart by being superheroes. Some were injured, some died, two of the daughters suffered worse. To say nothing of their personal trauma. Sabah hadn't pried, but she guessed Taylor's trigger event involved Shadow Stalker…and whatever it was, the very fact that it qualified as a trigger event meant it was more horrifying, terrifying, traumatizing than the worst experience most people had in their entire lives. The same applied to everyone there—Brian apparently had to endure that kind of trauma twice. It wasn't death, but Sabah wondered if it was any better, at the time. After they triggered, things were been better than during the trigger...but they were often worse than before triggering. And "before" was already pretty nasty for many of them.

"We're here to honor a fallen hero, and…a bit to make sure you understand the risks of being a Huntress, Lily. Yes, people die, but not all that often. Summer Rose was the most recent to die in Vale, and I think there's only been one or two since."

"Not saying much," Lisa pointed out, "if we don't know when she died."

"What was it? Ten years ago?"

"Something like that," agreed Rini.

"It's not that," said Lily. "It's…I don't want to leave my friends, and I'd probably have to if I went to Beacon or something."

The Huntsmen were silent. "The path would have been hard," admitted Arthur.

"Not much chance of success, without a weapon or good parents," said Brak.

Raul nodded. "Now that that has concluded…I believe I saw some beowolf tracks earlier."

"Same. Keep an eye out, kids. Pay your respects to Summer, or someone else, if you want."

The Huntsmen left, creeping into and through the woods like they were forest creatures. With their absence, the Undersiders stared silently, at each other and the gravestone.

Alec spoke solemnly. "'I'll not leave thee, thou lone one! To pine on the stem; since the lovely are sleeping. Go, sleep thou with them. Thus kindly I scatter, thy leaves o'er the bed, where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead."

"Nice," muttered Aisha. "Just…nice. Didn't know you were a poet."

"I'm not," Alec replied. "'The Last Rose of Summer,' Thomas Moore."

"Didn't know you were a poetry buff, either."

"If there's one thing my dad did right in raising us, and he sure didn't get much more than that, it's that he gave us a good education. Well, he made sure we had an education that wasn't just Internet."

"The poem doesn't really fit, anyways," Lisa pointed out. "Unless her friends and family are all dead. And this is Remnant, so…"

"Yeah, but…'Thus kindly I scatter.' Summer Rose."

Silence.

"Um, Lisa…it's…it is just a coincidence? Right?"

"Not omniscient."

"Right."

Silence reigned.

"I feel like we should…do something here," Rachel said.

"I know," Brian replied, "but…"

"…Maybe…" Sabah paused. "Um, maybe we can honor heroes who died, back home?"

Lisa nodded. "…Hero. Good place to start."

"Yeah," Brian said. "Dauntless and Velocity, Manpower and Shielder, Gallant and Aegis, Strider, and the other heroes who lost their lives fighting Leviathan in Brockton Bay, and all the other Endbringer attacks. It's one thing to fight when you can win…it's another to do so when you can't."

"Myrddin and the others who got killed by Noelle, too," added Aisha. "I mean, unless that counts with the Endbringers…"

"Shadow Stalker," Alec added. "She was…" He glanced at Taylor. "…not the nicest person, and yeah, she's still alive, but we still destroyed her life. Dunno if that counts."

Taylor nodded. "On that note...Coil. He deserved to die, I think, and definitely needed to, but…I wish he didn't have to. Wish I didn't have to..."

"Not a hero," Alec pointed out. "Shadow Stalker was. Technically."

Ignoring Alec, Lisa added a couple names. "Battery. Also Sphere, even though he was a rogue."

"Everyone else killed by the Nine," added Aisha. "And Panacea and Glory Girl, even though they're alive, and it wasn't the Nine's fault. Directly."

"Everyone else in the Birdcage who shouldn't be there," said Brian.

Silence reigned again, to be broken by Taylor. "…Not a cape, but…my mom."

Lily nodded. "My parents, too. I don't remember them much, but I miss them."

"My dad's not dead," said Brian, "and he wasn't a great dad, but he did his best. I miss him."

Taylor nodded. "I miss my dad, too. He deserved a daughter that didn't run off and turn into a supervillain."

"…You know, I miss my parents, too," added Lisa. "…And my brother."

Alex said, "My family was…dysfunctional, but I still miss them. …Well, some of my siblings, at least."

"Dysfunctional?" Brian asked. "Wasn't Cherish trying to get you killed?"

"Like I said, some of my siblings."

"Still, dysfunctional? I'd think—"

Lily interrupted. "I don't really have a family, unless you count the Wards. They were pretty dysfunctional, too, but I miss them."

Sabah added, "And my family, too. Even my annoying little cousins."

"I miss Mom," said Aisha, trying to hide some tears. "She's as 'dysfunctional' as Alec's dad, and I still miss her."

Rachel spoke up. "And my dogs. And some of the people in my territory. They were like family."

"And the people in my territory," Taylor agreed. "And Atlas, my beetle."

"And my territory," Brian muttered.

"And my lieutenants," added Lisa. "And my…my parents' cat, now."

Sabah nodded. "And my hamster."

At long last, the Undersiders had nothing left to say. So they said nothing.

~0~

Some time later, maybe five or fifteen minutes, the Huntsmen returned.

"They're dead."

"The beowolves, I hope?" asked Lisa.

"What a clever deduction," Brak sneered.

"Oh, do you really want to start this? I've had it—"

"Calm down, you two," Rini boomed. "Yeah, the beowolves are dead. Lots of 'em. We found evidence of a pretty good battle. Almost certainly an actual Huntsman, with a good weapon, good training, probably lots of talent too. Probably trained since he was little."

"Maybe one of Rose's family members?" suggested Raul.

"They are more likely to visit than other Huntsmen, but we don't know."

They headed back through the forest, down the path, and to the road for Vale. All the way, Lisa was jabbing at Brak the way he did at everyone, with a bit of Tattletale deconstruction in the mix. It would have been nice if the way down had been peaceful, but Sabah didn't mind too much. Their time at Summer's grave had basically just been everyone naming people who mattered to them, but somehow she felt closer to the other Undersiders after that. Everyone had opened up, a little, and shared some of their concerns, their sorrows and fears.


	8. Interlude 0—Pierre Delany (Banesaw)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So far, it has been a normal day in the life of Pierre Delany, a rising talent in the White Fang. Surely it will continue to be a normal day. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who don't read Worm, Interludes were chapters narrated by someone other than Taylor (who acts as a narrator for most of the story), in between arcs or sometimes in the middle of one. The arcs typically cover events closely tied to the story for that arc, or at least a close tangent. Since I'm already narrating from a variety of points of view—and I'll be doing so with non-Undersiders in future arcs—I'll probably end up doing more background types of things. I have a very solid idea in my head of why the Undersiders are in Remnant, for instance, as well as a lot of assumptions I've had to make about Remnant culture, both of which I hope to expand on in the Interludes. It also lets me back off and look at the story from a different angle. Hopefully, you readers will enjoy them.

 

**Interlude 0—Pierre Delany**

Pierre Delany was no stranger to hardship. His parents were slaves to the Schnees in all but name, and Pierre had been becoming the same. The Schnees had ruined his family. Without them, his parents could have gotten decent jobs, but because of the Schnee oppression of their faunus workers, disaster after disaster hit their family. Pierre's father died in an accident, a batch of dust all reacting at once due to carelessness and killing many workers. The Schnees just hired new workers. His elder brother lost a hand in a large machine, and the rest of his forearm had to be amputated. The Schnees fired him and hired a new faunus. Not only Pierre but also his mother and little sister had to work, just to get enough cash to pay the company for their tenement, food, and scant luxuries. For sowing all of this evil, the Schnees reaped grotesque profits. Pierre wondered how they would feel if it was that bastard Siegfried who lost his father, whose brother was crippled and whose mother and sister had to work in a processing plant just to support him and them. Someone would probably care. But the Delanys, they were just workers, just paupers, just faunus. Why would anyone care about them?

Pierre had brooded ever since the day his father died, dwelling on the debt the Schnees owed his family and all faunus, a debt that accrued interest every day that passed. He wanted his chance for revenge, more than anything else. Some days he wanted to torture the Schnees, some days to force them to work in their own plants, and some days he just wanted a chance to take a Schnee and kill them with his bare hands.

Not quite three years ago, fortune smiled on Pierre. He didn't get his hands on any of the Schnees, but the first step on his path for revenge had been taken. The Schnee plant was attacked; it was burned to the ground with its human employees locked inside, a message from Amund Volkov to anyone who would oppress the faunus. The workers who survived were recruited. Some fools considered it slavery to a different master, but Pierre saw differently. He saw opportunity—an opportunity for revenge, for justice. For once, Pierre had a chance to improve his station, to make his world and the world at large a better place. Whatever dreams he dreamed, whatever he wished to inflict on the Schnees, being in the White Fang could make it happen. The only thing that marred this otherwise-perfect day was the tragic death of his mother.

Pierre was young and healthy, strong and clever, and above all dedicated to the cause. This gave him great potential, which was wasted for over a year in the lowest ranks of the White Fang, working as errand-boy, foot soldier, and other menial positions. It was vital that someone do those tasks, which alleviated Pierre's frustration somewhat, but not enough—someone had to, but why him?

But at last, Pierre attracted notice from his superiors rose to a position of power, leading the lowly members of the White Fang where he had been so recently. He had hopes of becoming a real officer, someone important, someone who might be sent on important missions. There was a job being planned for a couple days from now, a couple operatives blowing up a Schnee train carrying Dust across the wilderness. Pierre would have liked nothing more than to be one of them, finally beginning to collect on the Schnees' debt, but everyone knew it would be one of those mentor-student pairs, and Pierre had neither a student nor anyone who he could specifically call a mentor. Probably Adam and his protege, if neither of them embarrassed themselves or died in the meantime.

Instead, he was stuck overseeing a stupid warehouse, of all things. Pierre understood that the warehouse itself was important—it was used to store things too big or numerous to store elsewhere, as a meeting place and a safehouse. He just didn't understand why it was so important that he needed to be watching the rookies guarding it instead of doing something useful. Nothing ever happened at the warehouse, except dealing with the petty arguments of his charges. Someone would come in with a crate of weapons or Dust or masks, and someone else would take a crate of parts or alcohol or uniforms. Sometimes a group of new recruits would be trained, and Pierre got to oversee them. Mostly, he made sure everyone did what they were supposed to, which they did maybe half of the time. Pierre's only consolation was that this was an opportunity to demonstrate what a good leader he was, how he could keep discipline among the ranks and deal with typical problems. If he could keep it up for a couple more months, Pierre would probably be promoted to a lieutenant.

No one could doubt that he maintained discipline. He had a presence; most rookies he dealt with realized they should just follow orders within minutes of meeting him, and the others would quickly come to cringe when they saw him or heard him raise his voice. Anyone who failed to perform their duty was punished, those who did well were rewarded. Things worked, they had been working for months. Pierre wondered what more his superiors could want.

~0~

Today was more of the same. He started by checking the schedule of deliveries and pickups. Some plain masks and weapons were being picked up, to be colored and otherwise prepared for the White Fang's new recruits to use. The last of the Dust crates in the warehouse would be picked up, too, with a truck, and some weapon parts would be dropped off at that point—just a crate or two. After that, the morning would be even more boring than usual until someone came by for a bunch of Dust rounds, then whatever some people who hit a Hagel cousin's house brought back, then just killing time until lights-out.

"Attention! We've got some big stuff coming today, so we'll need to make room. The area by the loading door needs to be cleared, and the Dust moved over there so we can have it loaded and out of here nice and easy. We'll need to sort and move the weapon parts they're bringing pretty quick, so we can pick up another shipment this evening. Finally, we need to move the crate of recruit gear and the Dust rounds over by the back entrance. As always, some sentries are needed to keep an eye at the windows. Do I have any volunteers at all?"

A couple volunteered as sentries, but the rest Pierre had to divide up by himself. Some were lazy, some didn't care where they worked, all annoyed him to no end, especially the ones that wouldn't do anything without him directly saying so. Last month, some idiot destroyed a crate of Dust once because no one thought that closing it was an implied part of stowing it with the others. Thankfully, none of the other crates had gone off; even more thankfully, Pierre's superiors realized who was at fault and didn't punish him for their stupidity.

Pierre spent the morning patrolling, watching the idiots who were theoretically supposed to be moving crates or clearing areas, but in practice were wasting time on chatter, bickering, or bugging him on where to move things. More than a few tried to slip away to the common area when he wasn't looking, to pretend to be one of the off-duty rookies or maybe one of the guards. Pierre wasn't so easily fooled, and assigned them menial chores or took away free periods.

The masks and weapons were delivered without much fuss, despite the fact that just half an hour prior he had to deal with the fact that no one apparently knew where they were, and they didn't try looking or anything. Thanks to Pierre's devoted and patient oversight, everything was fine when the truck came by to drop off the weapon parts and pick up the Dust. Efficient and simple to use one truck to do all the deliveries, just the way Pierre liked it. Unfortunately, the remainder of his morning was spent having to deal with every rookie who bugged him about where this, that, or the other group of parts was supposed to go. At last, it was time for lunch break, joyless as always, as Pierre had to keep an eye on the others, had to make sure no one was doing anything stupid.

After lunch, Pierre had nearly half an hour of relative peace before discovering that some idiot had apparently mistaken a crate of weapon parts—which they just sorted—for the crate of Dust rounds. He tried to argue that since he hadn't been someone who sorted the weapon parts, he couldn't be expected to know what crates went where. His lengthy reprimand was interrupted.

"Um…sir?"

It was one of his subordinates—formerly a guard—who showed an unusual degree of competence and work ethic, and who he promoted for it. "What is it, Olivia?"

"There are…there is an unusual number of insects around the common area. Flies and bees, mostly."

"Are they stinging you?"

"No sir, but—"

"Are they trying to steal anything?" Pierre added mockingly. "Break anything? Something like that?"

"No, sir."

"Then I can't see what the problem is. Ignore them. And maybe clean up after yourselves after lunch? I'm talking to you, Aarden!"

Pierre finished the interrupted lecture before continuing to patrol, looking for evidence of sloth or worse. Out of curiosity, he checked the common area for insects. As Olivia had said, the area was unusually buggy—more so than normal. He made a mental note to have the next few slackers he found clean it, but otherwise paid the insects no heed. What craven fool would be afraid of bugs?


	9. Small Steps 1.1: Fang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undersiders attack Pierre's warehouse and drive them out, making this quite an abnormal day.

**Small Steps 1.1**

**Fang**

"I can't believe it," Alec said to no one in particular. "We've haven't been in a city for half an hour and we're already up to our old tricks. No wonder Cauldron had to send us to a whole other planet."

Everyone ignored him.

The Undersiders were on top of a warehouse roof, across the street from what Lisa had suspected was a criminal base of some kind. They went over the plan again. First, Taylor would do recon to confirm that they would be kicking out criminals, or at least other squatters in an abandoned warehouse, and not legal owners of the warehouse. They had done many questionable things and outright criminal acts in Brockton Bay, but this was a new start, and Brian, among others, was hoping to avoid outright villainy if they could. She would also be keeping an eye on the inhabitants, and causing any mischief she could manage without anyone noticing. Other insects would be hidden around the building, ready to enter when it would cause the most chaos. Taylor's third, and perhaps most important goal, was to identify any potential threats and point Lily in the right direction to…remove them. Her power let her throw simple, unstoppable rocks in straight lines, making it easy to point her in the right direction. Brian hoped she wouldn't need to do that.

While Taylor's tasks were the most diverse, the others had tasks which were no less important. The first action planned was unleashing one stray dog under the effects of Rachel's power in the middle of the base. Rachel was supposed to sneak into the base, use her power, and run. Between Remnant humans seeming to be at least a bit tougher than Earth humans and a hope that that uncertainty and the vague resemblance between a transformed dog and Grimm, they hoped to provoke flight responses more than fight responses; the Undersiders hoped this would prevent unneeded bloodshed. In any case, Aisha would follow, adding general mayhem into the mix. Brian himself would enter once things were well underway, his darkness and any powers he could take hopefully convincing the stragglers that hell had come to their little warehouse. Alec, Sabah, Lily, and, as much as she could, Taylor were charged with making sure no one could successfully attack those on the roof if they somehow worked up the coordination and enthusiasm to identify and remove the source of the madness, while Lisa was supposed to make sure nothing went wrong.

Everyone going into the warehouse—Aisha, Rachel, and Brian himself—had beetles on their shoulders that Taylor would use to warn them if things were going badly, if they needed to run. Lisa assured that they shouldn't need to be used. Hopefully. Arguably the biggest difficulty of all came before they even entered the warehouse.

"I'm pretty sure they're White Fang," said Taylor. "Faunus only, Grimm-looking masks, weapons. I think it's just a bunch of low-level grunts, but there's no way to know." The White Fang was sympathetic in the way someone killing people to feed his family was: You could see where they were coming from, but could they really not think of a better way to achieve their goals? They worked by vandalism, theft, and terror, retribution against those who especially discriminated against or exploited faunus; there were even rumors that the White Fang had killed people for the singular crime of being human.

Lily glanced at Lisa. "Still not omniscient." Lily nodded in response. "Taylor, how many are there?"

"I'm not sure…a few dozen, at least. I'm not seeing much in the way of living quarters, so it's probably being used to store stuff."

Alec frowned. "I think…maybe we could convince them that Rachel's a faunus? I mean, if you just act like you belong and don't stick out like a sore thumb, most people won't question you."

"I'm not an actor," Rachel said.

"You shouldn't need to act too long. Especially if…" Lisa got a grin which came when she got an idea she considered exceptionally clever or unexpected. It usually meant that someone was about to get screwed. "Sabah, think you can improvise a hood for Rachel?"

"I guess, but I'd need some cloth. I'll need most of it to make the changes of clothes."

"See if you can make it with scraps or something. Or a spare garment. I'm almost sure there are plenty of faunus who cover up their heritage, especially in the White Fang. Good way to avoid prejudice, and suspicion. She might not even stand out."

Sabah quickly improvised a garment which looked like it could fit with the rest of Rachel's outfit, while also hiding both her face and lack of animal ears. It didn't look terrible, either—probably a benefit of being a fashion student with complimentary superpowers. Rachel donned the hood, took the stray, and went down the stairs leading to the roof. Brian checked to make sure that Aisha was following her, and realized he didn't know where she was. Good, he thought, part of his mind recognizing how utterly bizarre his life was when not knowing where his little sister was, especially when they were about to get in a fight with one of the most infamous criminal groups in the region, was a good thing.

Another bug, a fly of some kind, landed on Brian's hand. It would take off when he was supposed to go in. He went downstairs, readying his darkness and otherwise preparing to enter the White Fang warehouse. He suddenly wished he had one of his helmets from home. Then, instead of seeing a tall, dark-skinned man surrounded by darkness, they'd see a demon surrounded by darkness. It wasn't enough to just scare these White Fang members, today; they had to scare the White Fang enough to make them think twice about ever trying to reclaim the warehouse. The Undersiders were good at hit-and-run, they were almost unparalleled in Brockton Bay at scare tactics, but in a straight fight…they had Lily now, but her power didn't have much flexibility or crowd control, especially if she had to fire blind, and aside from her, they basically had whatever dogs Rachel could train, whatever bugs Taylor could find, and giant stuffed animals. If the White Fang made a serious attempt to retake the warehouse, chances are they would succeed.

Brian waited. Surely, if something had gone wrong, Taylor would warn him, tell him to retreat? If Aisha or Rachel needed his help, wouldn't she have told him to go in? But what if it was something in the middle, where Taylor wasn't sure if he should run or not? What if, what if, what if? Brian was relieved when the fly left his hand. Time to get to work.

Brian kicked in the door, darkness spilling through after him, followed closely by swarms of insects. Inside, there was already chaos. Faunus were running for exits, spinning around when they saw him and crashing into each other, swatting bugs, screaming. Some were grabbing weapons, armor, possessions, but some of these discovered they were falling apart or otherwise undesirable, the delicate mechanisms of guns pried at by beetle jaws, the cloth cut, or simply a number of insects lurking underneath or within, flying out to terrify anyone who tried to find some control over the situation.

Brian searched through his darkness, seeing if anyone had a useful power. He thought he sensed one, but it slipped his grasp, and he quickly forgot about it. Instead, he simply chose to deal with things in a more old-fashioned method. Brian scanned the crowd for someone who looked ready to try fighting, intending to use him as an example. Minimum harm for maximum fear. He saw a tallish man, perhaps a couple inches shorter than Brian and probably an officer of some sort. He had tattoos on one arm and a sleeveless, high-collared shirt; his only protection was offered by a standardized-looking half-face mask and a pair of metal guards on his arms. The officer grabbed and started a chainsaw, which gave Brian a few seconds of concern before it made a loud crunching noise and the chain flew off. Evidently, it had some delicate components that a large bug could damage. The Fang cast aside the ruined weapon and looked at Brian, largely unafraid. "Bring it on, human. You don't frighten me."

Brian entered a fighting stance, advancing cautiously. The Fang circled around, looking for some opening. Brian thought he sensed a power, which distracted him for a fraction of a second, enough for the Fang to think he had an opening. He charged across the floor, knocking a flimsy chair out of the way, and prepared a blow. The technique was sloppy at best; the Fang telegraphed his attack, left himself wide open, and had his thumb inside his fist. Although to be fair, poor technique might be unremarkable in a world where a chainsaw was an acceptable weapon.

These thoughts passed through the back of Brian's mind; the rest was focused on the incoming attacker. Both back and front of mind were pleasantly surprised when the Fang tripped over his own feet and began stumbling forward, trying to regain his balance. Brian took a half-step out of the way before planting a knee in his gut to make sure he wouldn't get up. The back of his mind noted that something didn't feel right, but decided it wasn't wrong enough for Brian to pay attention. The officer got up quickly—too quickly, given how hard Brian had struck him in the stomach. He aimed a punch at Brian, slow and obvious. Brian dodged and aimed a punch directly at the center of the Fang's chest. He had stumbled back a bit, but didn't look even slightly winded.

Shit. I picked a fistfight with a Brute. In a fair fistfight, Brian could defeat most people with ease. He was big, strong, and most importantly, knew what he was doing. The officer was tougher than normal, and probably stronger, too. Brian's only advantage was that he knew what he was doing in a typical street fight, which helped more against overconfident white supremacists than anyone with actual powers to supplement their combat prowess.

The Fang staggered, as if someone slung a large weight on him. Brian took advantage of the opening. The best weak spot is probably the eyes...if I can get the mask off... Brian lunged for the officer's face, grabbing at the mask, yanking on it, using his other hand to get leverage with the Fang's throat. The mask came off, the Fang was off-balance, but Brian's other hand hit something that didn't feel like a throat. He thought he heard something, but everything but Brian's fight with the officer quickly fled his mind.

One hand: A mask. The other hand was empty. He threw away the mask, backed up a few steps, blocking a punch from the Fang. It hurt, and Brian decided to try dodging when he could. The Fang didn't have a mask anymore. He staggered forward, with the weight that seemed to be on his shoulders seeming to fall off, then charged again; Brian took a step to the side at the last second and grabbed the Fang's fist and shoulder, bringing up his knee.

"…of foot, toes. The elbow, too, if you can do anything with it."

"Whatever."

"Try to pay attention, Alec…"

Brian discovered that he couldn't do much with the Fang's elbow. He seemed to be in pain, but recovered quickly, and his elbow was still in one piece. The Fang's other fist came at Brian's head, hitting him in the skull. Painful, briefly disorienting, but hardly the worst. Brian broke off, circling.

The beetle bit him, started flying around his head. Run. Brian quickly backed up, trying to orient himself. The officer was somehow between him and the door, most of the other Fangs had fled or backed off. The other Undersiders knew what they were doing, and the darkness everywhere helped.

Suddenly, a noise. A hole appeared in the wall, a crate, and the floor. The Fang was in the middle. He collapsed…briefly. He staggered up, in more pain than he was from anything Brian did, and made for the door.

The beetle returned to his shoulder. Taylor wanted me to back off, not to run, Brian realized. He glanced around, realized he was surrounded. Most of the Fangs had fled, routed, especially once they saw how the one Brian had been fighting got injured. Despite this, there were still three ready to fight, vaguely defining two-thirds of a rough circle, maybe ten or fifteen feet away. Crates largely blocked the last third.

"You're a bad dog! Bad dog! Come get me!" Brian spun. He had enough time to wonder what the fuck Aisha was doing with her power down when he saw Rachel's dog chasing her. Suddenly, it was just the dog, running at the Fangs and Brian. They decided that, even if they were willing to fight a big shadowy man-thing when he had support from something that could punch through walls with ease, an oversized dog-monster on top of that was more than they were ready to deal with.

Leaving Brian to deal with said dog-monster. It wasn't as big as Rachel usually made her dogs—maybe the size of a big St. Bernard—but it was still big enough, and nasty. Normally, the dogs Rachel sent into battle were used to being several times their normal size, skinless, and whatnot, not to mention well-trained, but this one…wasn't. Brian took some solace in the fact that its flesh already looked loose—soon enough, the meaty outer shell would be sloughing off. Brian just needed to endure that long.

He leaped onto one of the smaller crates in the warehouse, hoping to get out of reach, but as he was clambering up onto the next he saw the dog chase him. Brian's first plan failed, leaving him Plan B, which was dangerous. He lept onto the dog, twisting so he grabbed it around the shoulders. The dog thrashed in his grip, the bony plates pinching his skin, ripping it when the dog moved, and the smaller spines lacerating it. Much better than what would happen if the dog's jaws, not so far from Brian's head but thankfully on the wrong side of its head, could reach him. Brian let go with one arm to grab the beast's head, whipping his hand away as the dog tried to bite it, adjusting his grip, taking another opportunity. The dog's head was in his grasp, the jaws caught between his shoulder and forearm.

A few more minutes were spent struggling with the increasingly weak creature, until it had fallen apart enough to be inoffensive, at which point he let go. He felt a bit drained. A brief fight with a man significantly stronger and tougher than him, followed by a long struggle with one of Rachel's smaller monster-dogs, and likely compounded with some blood loss…not surprising.

"You're done?" Lisa said, walking over. "I really hope most of that blood isn't yours."

"Shut it, Alec," Brian grumbled, distracted and making sure he didn't have any severe injuries.

"I didn't even say anything this time!"


	10. Small Steps 1.2: Blank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Undersiders settle into their new home and try to plan for the future.

**Small Steps 1.2**

**Blank**

Taylor had plenty to worry about through the evening. Once Brian changed into spare clothes and got his wounds bandaged, he looked…not what most people would consider okay, what with the bruises, stitches, and the fact that he moved stiffly, but considering all that Brian and the other Undersiders had been through, she suspected that he would be fine. One potential worry was out of the way...probably.

In theory, the Undersiders should have scared the White Fang off for some time. Taylor didn't dare hope that they were gone for good, but they should need at least a few days to regroup. Should. But even if the Undersiders never saw the White Fang again, they would need to deal with basic necessities like food and water, plan out their next moves, and try and turn this warehouse into a home for eight that wasn't absolutely miserable. And then they would have to handle the inevitable complications.

Lily, Aisha, and Lisa went out to get some food for dinner, while the rest of them started preparing the warehouse for habitation. The Undersiders had turned more run-down and barren placed into headquarters before, but at the time they had significant financial backing, whereas right now they had a bit less than fifteen hundred lien, which Lisa had guessed were about a dime each. Roughly. In any case, while it would suffice for food for a little while, it wasn't going to let them buy furniture, let alone pay for any renovations.

Luckily, the White Fang had a crude base set up in the warehouse. Near as they could tell, they were mainly using it as a place to put stuff in the city that they couldn't or wouldn't put elsewhere, and probably as a meeting hall at times. The White Fang hadn't had  _much_ furniture, and between Rachel's dog, Brian's brawl, and the general effects of having a small but panicked mob, some of it got damaged. Still, with what furniture they had, and both using the warehouse's few internal walls and modifying some pre-existing box walls, the Undersiders could set up several bedrooms and a sort of dining/living room. None of them had actual  _beds_ , but Sabah turned a crate of White Fang uniforms into several hammocks, so they at least wouldn't be sleeping on the ground.

The others returned with dinner. Fast food, or the Valean equivalent. Valic? Valish? That was one of many things they would have to learn. A lack of common knowledge would risk giving them away, and it wasn't like they didn't already stand out. Lisa had pointed out a while ago that the faces and bodies of the Remnant humans were a bit different than those of humans from either Earth. There were no blatant differences—the Undersiders barely noticed until Lisa pointed it out—but the differences were still there. Just another thing to be paranoid about, in case they didn't have enough stress.

The Undersiders discussed their plans over dinner. Their first priority, aside from survival, would be to prepare for the inevitable White Fang counter-attack. That evening, Rachel and Taylor were supposed to find more of their creatures—stray dogs and bugs, respectively. The next morning, the two of them and Lily would be staying at the warehouse, Taylor raising a swarm if and when the White Fang threatened to try and recover the warehouse (or if anyone else suspicious decided to take a look), Rachel training the dogs and getting them used to being transformed, and Lily as muscle for if things went wrong. Brian would also be staying behind, to rest. The other four Undersiders would be going out to try and get some kind of job, or at least earn money in some way; Taylor, Brian, Lily, and Rachel would join them when they didn't need to sit around the warehouse all day. Most of the Undersiders lacked marketable skills, due to having levels of education ranging from none to G.E.D. Sabah was the exception; she had completed high school and started college, developing a useful skill which complimented her power.

Having hashed out basic plans, the conversation drifted to Remnant. Brian mentioned that he couldn't copy the superpower of the Brute he fought.

"Unfortunate," Lisa muttered. "But at least we know Semblances aren't powers. Maybe they won't expect what we can do, and that'll give us an edge?"

The conversation drifted away from the warehouse before devolving into an argument over what the adjective for "from Vale" was. When it got too heated, Brian stepped in and ended it. More small talk, then setting up watches and going to bed. Everyone was able-bodied, so we had four watches of two people each. Taylor had second watch, with Sabah.

After getting a couple hours of sleep, Taylor was awoken by Alec. "Your turn. Night."

Taylor decided to see if there were any books in any of the crates. It had been a while since she had read much of anything. She didn't have the time as an Undersider, and there weren't many books in the places she had been in Remnant. At least, not many available. Most families in Meadow-Creek had one or two, but Taylor didn't think they'd be willing to lend them out; Oak was willing, but most of his books were about geography or natural philosophy (basically science). Not bad, but she only got a little enjoyment out of them, and since Oak focused on larger animals, Taylor didn't learn nearly as much about the local insects as she would like. There was a book on Grimm that she read, and a few other volumes that she skimmed, but nothing on bugs.

Taylor was about ten or fifteen minutes into the search when Sabah came over to her. "Um, Taylor? I know you can watch with bugs, but…"

"You want a bit of company?"

"If you don't mind."

"Alright." Taylor followed Sabah to her vantage point on the roof.

"By the way, those hammocks are good. They're...comfortable."

"Thanks."

The two of them watched the nighttime city. As much as it reminded Taylor of Brockton Bay, there was no way one could mistake Vale for it, or for any Terran city. Most of the buildings were maybe four to six stories tall, with each building flowing seamlessly into the next, leaving only a few alleys in between. Towers or spires reached high out of the sea of buildings every few blocks. Taylor thought most cities would have the skyscrapers next to each other, but not Vale; here, they were more spread out, though surrounded by blocks where the buildings were higher than normal, giving the skyline an organic, flowing appearance. A few parks found places in between the massive buildings, and cars' headlights dotted the street below.

And there were almost no bugs. On Earth, you could find flies in every house, roaches in every wall and floor, spiders in every closet, and so forth. There were insects everywhere, outnumbering the human inhabitants of the city massively in all but the cleanest of buildings…and that was before Brockton Bay was turned into a disaster area. Here, the walls were solid stone, brick, or concrete, the floors and some internal walls were solid wood, and the entire city seemed…sterile, almost. It was eerie, almost as disorienting as if it had been in black and white.

Sabah didn't notice the lack of bugs, just the skyline. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"It's a bit like home, and yet…the skyline is so…"

"…Exotic?"

"I was thinking more 'unusual,' maybe 'alien'."

"…I suppose they're opposite sides of the same coin."

"Yeah."

More time passed.

"How do you think this will work?" Sabah asked. "Us living here, on this...alien world?"

"I don't know. This isn't like what we were doing in Brockton Bay. There, we had money, resources, reputation. Here, we're nobodies. We have nothing, know no one, and don't really know how to change that."

"We have our powers. They're pretty good ones."

"Yeah. I guess that helps. Especially for you. You could actually get a decent job."

"I'm sure the rest of you can, too."

"I'm not. I'm a high school dropout, Alec and Rachel never went to school, period, and none of us except you know how to do anything most people can't."

"You beat the Slaughterhouse Nine, didn't you?"

"For a certain definition of 'beat,' yes."

"And Dragon, and Coil. You fought Noelle and Leviathan, too, most people wouldn't do that."

"Recklessness isn't a marketable skill."

"I don't think you're reckless, Taylor. You're brave, and…no matter what you think about yourself, you're a good person at heart. You're trying to make the world a better place, even if you have to do bad things to do it. That's a lot better than most people even try to do. And you manage to pull through with doing what you think is right, even when it gets hard. I envy you, for that."

"Thanks…You're a good person, too, even if you're not strong or stupid enough to fight the worst monsters on the planet."

"I appreciate it."

The two girls watched the lights of the city.

"I was thinking of trying to make some spider silk cloth for you to use, once I got enough spiders. What kind of patterns or shapes would you find useful?"

~0~

After an uneventful watch, Taylor woke Aisha up and went to bed. The next morning, before the last watch was really over, she woke up and went with Brian to pick up breakfast.

"I'm pretty sure Aisha can handle herself for half an hour," Taylor said. "Besides, it would be a pleasant surprise for the others, don't you think?"

Brian shrugged, but he went with, and didn't seem annoyed.

"It's been a while since we've had time together," Brian said.

"Yeah. Things have been…weird."

"Understatement, since…yeah."

They were up earlier than most people would be, but there were still some cars and pedestrians around. Enough that they could easily be heard, not enough to get drowned out. They'd have to watch what they said.

Small talk wasn't Taylor's favorite pastime, but she could enjoy it with the right company. She and Brian went to a grocery store to get food. The warehouse didn't have a kitchen, but they had found some dishes, and there was a small refrigerator that had held what looked like beer, meaning they could refrigerate food. After some consideration, they got a gallon of milk, a box of cereal, and—on an impulse—a box with four donuts. It wasn't the healthiest breakfast, but it  _was_  cheap and relatively familiar.

They walked back to the warehouse, talking, trying to work out plans without sounding suspicious to passers-by. They didn't get much of anywhere, but their reception at the warehouse was warm.

Lisa was, of course, the first to notice. "Breakfast's here."

They started getting the dishes and such almost immediately. Alec glanced at the box and announced, "Hey, Mom and Dad brought donuts!"

"Awesome!" Aisha shouted back.

Brian sighed. "Ha ha. We only got four, so everyone gets half of one. That's half a Remnant donut, though, so it's probably not  _that_  stingy."

Lily took the cereal. "Um, 'Pumpkin Pete's Choc-O-Lots'?"

"We only got it because it was on sale," Taylor said.

The Undersiders began eating once the cereal was poured and the half-donuts distributed. "So," Lily asked, "if you're the mom and dad of the group, what's Lisa?"

"Don't encourage them," Brian said.

"I'm the cool aunt," Lisa answered, ignoring Brian.

"I wonder what Rachel would be?" Aisha said, glancing at Alec.

Alec smirked. "I'm thinking…uncool aunt?"

"Maybe you shouldn't provoke either aunt," suggested Lily.

"Maybe we shouldn't play along with the 'kids'" delusions," Brian suggested. "It doesn't help."

"Come on, Brian," Aisha whined. "Can't we pretend to be a normal family for once?"

Brian sighed. "Raise your hand if you have  _ever_  had a  _normal_  family."

Sabah, Taylor, and Lisa raised their hands. The others did not.

"Never mind," Aisha muttered.

The rest of breakfast conversation was in a similar vein, but breakfast was over quickly. The half of the group that was going out left; the others stayed behind, cleaning up.

It certainly wasn't the worst day Taylor could have had, but it wasn't pleasant. She was constantly on edge; if Taylor wasn't listening to the sounds of one of Rachel's dogs struggling against chains—massive, powerful, and aching to tear out a throat—she was jumping at every person approaching the warehouse; if she wasn't worrying about the Undersiders out in the city, alone and foreign, she was worrying about Brian's wounds becoming infected, or about their lack of long-term planning. In case all these worries weren't enough, once they cleaned up from breakfast, Taylor had little to busy herself with. She helped Rachel find stray dogs (which, like bugs, were rarer in Vale than they were in Brockton Bay) and helped search the crates, but there was ultimately not much she  _could_  do.

The day passed, and the others returned, with varying results. Sabah had absolutely no luck finding work; no tailors, clothiers, weavers, or what-have-you were hiring. "Most of them were just one person, anyways. If I had a shop, I could probably start something, but I don't think that a warehouse taken from the White Fang is a good place for one."

Alec didn't have much luck either, although he had managed to find a shop owner who paid him a hundred lien to help him rearrange his inventory for an hour. He also swiped a few Dust crystals. Aisha's "work" was mainly picking pockets, which she was quite good at; she got two smartphone-like devices called scrolls, several hundred lien, and assorted personal effects, most notably including a knife with two compartments for Dust. The Dust was removed by Lisa, since it was probably more valuable sold than used in combat.

Lisa brought what was arguably the best news. "I've been casing the Vale underworld, figuring out who does what, who I could work with. I've heard of a guy called Junior, who runs a little criminal group out of a nightclub. Mostly a broker—information, goods, and otherwise. Worst case scenario, we can probably sell him some White Fang stuff. Ideally, I could become a business partner."

Sabah was troubled by this. "Between Alec and Aisha stealing things, and now this...I'm not sure I'm comfortable with how much crime we're doing..."

"We're pretty well-off," Brian said, "so no more stealing. As for Junior...don't do anything illegal, okay?"

Lisa shrugged. "No problem."

There was a pause; Brian ended it. "I'm going to be going out tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" Lily asked.

"I feel fine, if that's what you're asking. And I'm capable enough that I should be able to get a job at the docks, or something. At least one of us needs to get a steady job, if we don't want be forced back to supervillainy."

Go back to supervillainy? It wasn't something Taylor particularly wanted to do, but...Taylor's dad worked for the docks, as a union representative. If Vale was like Brockton Bay, dock work didn't pay much, and there would be a lot of people competing for the jobs. But even that was probably a better chance at legal epmloyment than any of the others had. If the Undersiders didn't get lucky, supervillainy might be their only option.


	11. Small Steps 1.3: Pages

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to NemoMarx on Sufficient Velocity, who has begun work as a beta reader for Shards. I thank him for pointing out many errors I missed or didn't realize were errors.
> 
> I will be covering quite a bit of ground here. Don't worry, I'll be going over it in more detail in coming chapters. I just thought that an outlook from an ignorant outsider would be interesting. Also, when creating a timeline, I realized that this chapter (and the next, for that matter) starts on the same day that Behemoth attacks. This was not intentional, but it's neat.

 

**Small Steps 1.3**

**Pages**

Another quiet day at Tukson's Book Trade. Usually, he would have been bored and irritable; today, however, he was just glad to have some time to organize all the  _stuff_  in his back room. The White Fang helped him keep his book store open, in exchange for being able to use it for whatever they needed it for. Sometimes there was a meeting, occasionally they used it to launder money, once he gave shelter to a couple of trainees on the run from from the law, but most often what they needed the bookstore for was an extra building to store things in.

The White Fang lost a warehouse the night before last—supposedly, they were attacked by some kind of demon and his hounds—so they needed all the storage space they had. The Book Trade was a relatively public location (even if people rarely entered), so the White Fang tried not to come by too often. They had stored several large crates with the Hagel emblem on them in the back room yesterday, told him not to open them, and had left him alone since.

This disrupted his book storage, naturally. The White Fang didn't *damage* any books, but they didn't mind knocking stacks of them over, and moved several to completely the wrong side of the room. Tukson liked some semblance of order in his back room, but the White Fang bringing goods in and out of the store made this tricky on the best days. A quiet day to organize the store was a blessing right now. Still...some customers would be nice.

~0~

Around eleven, Tukson heard the clanking bell that meant someone was entering the store, followed after a pause by someone ringing the smaller bell at the front counter.

"Be right there." Tukson was trying to get his back room organized, as he often was. It wasn't easy; even under normal circumstances, even when if they tried not to hang around, the White Fang still dropped off or picked up something once or twice every week, each time forcing Tukson to rearrange the back room. It didn't help that the back room was full of what must have been thousands of books, or that Tukson wasn't particularly good at organization to begin with. And, of course, the White Fang was currently storing far more in Tukson's shop than they usually did. He quickly shifted a stack of books to conceal one of the crates, and went into the store.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun. How may I help you?"

The customer was a girl, scrawny but quite tall, probably in her mid-teens. Her hair was brown and curly, and she wore glasses and a blue dress, decorated with a mess of black lines. She smiled at Tukson. "Hi, I'm Taylor Violet. I was wondering if you wanted to hire anyone?"

 _This could be tricky._  Tukson could certainly use some help, when customers were around; if she could keep a cheerful storefront, he might even make more money than he paid her. Tukson wasn't confident about this, though, and there could be...complications. Most obviously, she was human, and while the White Fang didn't forbid interacting with humans (no matter how much they wanted to; there just weren't enough faunus around), they probably wouldn't appreciate him  _hiring_  one. Especially if she happened to be there when they came to drop something off...

That said, Tukson would appreciate the company, and the help. He might finally get a chance to organize those books, maybe even find a consistent space for the White Fang to leave their stuff so he wouldn't need to constantly reorganize them. But mostly, Tukson wanted the company. Ever since the White Fang went to the wolves, he felt…alone. Members like him who remembered the old days, when they organized protests instead of raids, and who wanted to return to those days...it wasn't wise to let that be known, and was less wise to give hints that you were working with other such "trouble-makers," in case the White Fang's leaders thought you were conspiring against them. It was hard to find anyone who he knew they would approve of interacting with, who he also  _wanted_  to interact with.

Tukson was afraid of them still. That made up his mind.

"I'm sorry," said Tukson, "but I don't really have the budget to take on any help right now. I hope you understand."

Taylor nodded, then glanced at the books. "If I can't find any work, could I come by and help in exchange for borrowing some books?"

Tukson was still a bit reluctant but the more he thought about it, the more his loneliness started to win against his fear—and he couldn't think of an argument against letting Taylor work for him. "Do you have any experience?"

"I worked at a general store for a few weeks, in a village called Meadow-Creek. And…" She paused, trying to decide if she should say what was coming next. "…I volunteered at a library a few years ago. Does that count?"

She was hiding something, Tukson could tell; she was trying to decide what was safe to say and what wasn't. Tukson knew the feeling.

"Well…a store is a store, and books are books. Look…" Tukson couldn't think of any reason to deny her. "I'll tell you what. I'll sleep on it, and if you can't find any work by tomorrow, we'll try and figure something out."

Taylor smiled again. "Thank you. I'll come by either way, so you know."

"See you tomorrow, then?"

"I'll try to come around when you open."

"Sounds good."

"Goodbye."

"Good luck, Taylor."

"Thanks."

Tukson nodded as Taylor left. Part of him hoped she couldn't find work.

That night, some White Fang members came by to pick up one of the crates and drop off a bag of masks and swords for new recruits, who they said should be arriving after closing time tomorrow. Tukson was a bit concerned that the recruits would mess with the books, on accident or otherwise, but didn't think too much about it. What could he do about it?

They also mentioned they'd be trying to take the warehouse back the next day, late in the afternoon. At least, they'd see what was going on there. Tukson wished them luck. It was honest concern for the other White Fang members, even if he didn't like some of the new blood, combined with the hope that they'd be able to clear out his back room soon.

~0~

Tukson was organizing things in the back room when he heard the bell ring. He dropped the bag the White Fang had left him and came out. "Welcome to Tukson's Book—Ah, Taylor. Glad to see you again."

Taylor looked a bit anxious. "I couldn't find any other work, so…"

Tukson nodded. His loneliness had won out over his fear. "I've decided I could use the help, so I'm willing to hire you. Not for a salary or anything, like I said—"

"You don't have the money. I understand."

Tukson nodded again. "I'll...just let you know what's going on. Customers don't come in all that often, but there's still at least a few every day. When they come in, greet them with—"

"'Welcome to Tukson's Book Exchange, home to every book under the sun, how may I help you?"

"You've got a good memory," Tukson said, coming out from behind the counter. "People are going to ask where books are, so…on that side is nonfiction, fiction's opposite. The corner in front is where we keep graphic novels, then historical fiction, romance…" Tukson described the layout of the store and he and Taylor walked around. She seemed most interested in the history and natural philosophy books.

"When there aren't customers, you can read any book you like, just don't take more than one at a time, put them back where you found them when you're done, and be careful."

"Of course."

"If a customer wants to buy the book you're reading, let them."

Taylor nodded. Tukson could tell that she was a bit annoyed at that.

"I don't think you wouldn't, I'm just...trying to cover everything. Anyways, at the end of the day, I'll let you borrow one book for the night if you promise to bring it back by opening tomorrow and be careful with it.

"I can do that."

"If a customer asks if we have more books in back, we do. If they're looking for a specific book when I'm in back, or want to sell a book, or ask for me, knock on the door. Don't go in back."

"Why not?"

"…It's a mess back there, I wouldn't want you knocking over anything. It's not well-lit, either, and I have things organized how I like it." He didn't think Taylor believed him, but she didn't say anything.

"If you have any other questions, let me know."

"Is it okay if I take a lunch break?" Taylor seemed…distracted.

"Well, not right now," Tukson said with a forced laugh. "But yes, a brief break for lunch should be fine. I've gotten by without any help for months, I'll manage for an hour."

"Alright. Thanks."

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Exchange, Taylor."

Tukson went back into the storeroom and located the bag he had dropped. He noticed a couple flies crawling out into it and considered calling an exterminator.

The day passed quickly. Taylor asked about opening the shades, and Tukson agreed it would probably be fine. He had gotten into the habit back when he was selling lots of antique books, but he'd since realized that he could sell them as well by keeping most in back and using the display space for more popular books. People looking for old books generally didn't come to browse and see what they'd like.

Late that afternoon, Taylor knocked on the door to the back room. "Can I take a break? It's an emergency, I've got a friend in trouble."

Tukson glanced at the clock. "How long's this emergency going to take?"

"I'm not sure. Could be five or ten minutes, could be longer."

"If it's an emergency, go. That could take you close to closing time, though."

"Should I come back after, help close?" Taylor asked.

"No, that's fine. I've gotten by without any help for months, I can close on my own tonight." Tukson didn't want her to return and run into any White Fang members.

Taylor shrugged. "Thanks for having me here, Tukson."

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow?"

Taylor nodded. She took the book she had been reading— _Insects, Spiders, and their Kind_ —back to the shelf, grabbed a history book, and left. Tukson glanced at the clock again.  _They should be attacking the warehouse soon._  Tukson hoped they succeeded even if he didn't like where the White Fang was going, or hated some of the newer members, they were still his figurative brothers and they shared a goal.

The first of the new recruits came by within minutes of closing time. Tukson tried not to think of what could have happened if they had come before Taylor left. Probably nothing. Right?

~0~

A few days passed. The big news was that Adam Taurus and Blake Belladonna hit a train. A success, unlike recapturing the warehouse, but they lost Belladonna. She wasn't killed or captured—she just left. There were a lot of people in the White Fang wondering why; Tukson was among them. He hadn't known her well, but he and Russel Belladonna had been in the White Fang together when they were young and dumb; like many of the old guard, Tukson had babysat for Blake once or twice when she was younger, and remembered her enthusiastically shaking signs or handing out pamphlets. Then Raluca Holub stepped down, and everything changed.

Under Volk's rule, only warriors had a real chance to advance—he meant to make this a war if provoked, and they needed soldiers. Many White Fang children stepped forward, Blake among them, but Tukson and others worried. Some worried that they would break in battle; others, Tukson included, worried that a war would break them. This incident proved both of their concerns.

It was Taylor's third day, and Tukson decided to broach the subject. See what most people think about it, maybe get a justification in case the Fang found out.

"Did you hear about what the White Fang did yesterday?"

Taylor shook her head. "I want to keep up with the news, but I haven't been able."

"Oh. Well, they hit a Schnee train carrying Dust. Cut it in half, took a lot of stuff from the back half before destroying it."

"That's…unfortunate."

"I've finished with the newspaper," Tukson said. "Here, it's on the front page."

After that, Tukson and Taylor discussed the news every morning.

Later that day, Taylor knocked on the door to the back room. "There's a customer who—"

"Do you have more of these comics?" The other voice was male, young.

"Be right there," Tukson promised. He worked his way through the back room, still carrying a stack of books, and entered the store proper. The customer was a young man, clothed in white, including a cape and gloves, with curly black hair and blue eyes. He looked like a pretty-boy, arrogant, but a customer. "How may I help you?"

"You got any more of these in back?" He waved a book with three young men and a young woman on the front, a sinister castle-like building behind them, surrounded by a number of others. A Sovrano Academy anthology.

"I'll see what I can find," Tukson promised. He went in back to where he stored works published by Bowbatusk Comics. He unstacked the pile to get at other Sovrano Academy books, and decided to bring some issues of The Mask Game out, too. Tukson didn't know why he had agreed to buy them in the first place—no one liked it.

"Is this what you were looking for?" Tukson asked as he returned.

"I'll take a look," the customer promised. "You can go back to sorting stuff or whatever."

Tukson decided Taylor could handle herself and did as he suggested. He stayed close to the door, though, and listened. He was talking with Taylor.

"See if these comics are any good, will you? Maybe you'll recognize someone."

"I still think you're crazy."

"Whatever." A couple minutes passed in silence, then the customer spoke up again "Hey, look, it's you, meeting with us!"

"She barely looks anything like me, and Team Gray still isn't much like you guys."

"Well, yeah, it's a comic book. How's the one you're reading?"

"Completely unrelated, without even the kinds of things you're seeing. And I don't like it much. The plot seems too contrived…and the main character seems kinda passive."

"Reminds you a bit of how you used to be?"

"Were you planning to buy something, or can you just not wait until dinner to bother me?"

"I'll take these books."

So it was someone Taylor knew, and saw frequently, part of her circle of friends.  _Well...technically a friend, at least._

~0~

A week after that, Taylor came into the store while Tukson was still reading the paper. "Did you hear about the kids who stopped a Dust robbery?"

"I was one of the kids," she replied.

Tukson looked up and examined her. Taylor looked different, just a little. Her skin was brighter, her posture straighter, her eyes deeper. He'd known several White Fang members both before and after they had their Aura unlocked—Sharrue, Russel's daughter, that one wolf-boy who mocked him every chance he got—and if you knew what to look for, it was unmistakable.

Tukson tried to imagine Taylor fighting Torchwick and his goons, and just…couldn't. She was a sweet girl, kind and polite.

"It was you? Really?"

"I…did my best, yeah. And...well, the headmaster of Beacon offered to enroll me and my friends there."

Tukson was speechless. Not only had Taylor and some of her friends fought a notorious criminal, they had done well enough to attract the attention of Headmaster Ozpin. He tried to keep Beacon open to anyone who did well enough to deserve being a Huntsman, but that still left a high bar. Only a couple dozen students were accepted each term, after all, and the rich families and Huntsman kids usually got high priority.

"So...you won't be working here anymore, will you." She had barely begun working here.

"I've got a few more free days, but...I'm sorry, this is...important. And...like you said, you got by without any help for months, you'll manage."

"Yeah..."

Tukson didn't want to lose Taylor. He didn't want to admit it, but she was pretty much the only real friend he still had at this point. When she went to Beacon, she would be added to his list of old friends he knew he wouldn't hear from again.

"Is something wrong, Tukson?"

"I..." He took a receipt out of his pocket and scrawled a number on it. "Here's my Scroll ID. If you want to, you know..."

Taylor looked at the scrap of paper, and Tukson felt his throat clench. Now, instead of adding her to old friends he never heard from, he might get to start a list of friends he scared away at the last minute. If she even thought of them as friends, not just co-workers or something.

"I don't have a Scroll."

"I...I understand."

"I'm not leaving for a few days, and I'll be getting a scroll by the time I leave. I'll come by later, to say goodbye."

Tukson felt a surge of relief. He knew that, even if he fled Vale, fled the White Fang, alienated the closest thing he still had to family, he'd at least have one friend. "I'm glad to hear it. Will you still be working here until you leave?"

Taylor shook her head. "I've never used a sword before. I need to learn a little before I go. Sorry."

Tukson nodded his head. "Before you go…" Tukson had noticed that Taylor almost always read  _Insects, Spiders, and Their Kind_ at least some every day, even though she never took it home. Tukson grabbed the book from the shelf and handed it to her. "Here. You can have this."

"Thanks."

"You're the only person who's picked it up in weeks, it'll free up shelf space. ...But you're welcome."

Taylor nodded. "See you tomorrow."

"See you then. Good luck at Beacon."

"Thanks. Good luck with the bookstore, Tukson."

Taylor left the store; Tukson went back into the storeroom, organizing books and humming an aimless tune. He felt that everything would turn out just fine.


	12. Small Steps 1.4: Bitter

**Small Steps 1.4**

**Bitter**

Rachel had spent the day at the warehouse with her dogs again. She didn't mind; she knew her dogs would be their first, maybe only, line of defense if the White Fang tried to take their warehouse back, and she liked her dogs more than she'd like dealing with people.

Her first dog on Remnant was one that Taylor found after searching for one, before they took the warehouse. The dog was male, a mutt, mostly sheepdog of some kind. The Undersiders thought they shouldn't name the dog or get too attached to it in case the dog died. The plan had reminded Rachel a bit of what happened to Rollo, which worried Rachel, but she reminded herself that Rollo didn't have anyone watching out for him, that her friends would be able to handle this dog. She was really glad she had been right.

The dog didn't get named by Rachel. After the fight with the White Fang, Aisha named him Zork. Rachel didn't like the name much, but Zork did, so she accepted the name. The next day, with Taylor's help, Rachel managed to find three more; she named them Boris, Blaine, and Lina. Boris was the smallest of the four dogs by a bit, maybe a terrier mix, reddish-brown fur. Blaine was a beagle, more or less, tricky to train due to fearful of everyone and quick to bite when trapped. Rachel figured he had lived in a bad household. Lina was a rottweiler bitch with a big scar over the left side of her face, ruining the ear and eye on that side. Rachel thought Lina was a bit like Angelica had been. She wondered what happened to Angelica, and Bentley and Bastard and the other dogs left in Brockton Bay.  _I'm sure Barker and Biter are taking care of them. Biter, at least. He likes dogs._

Rachel spent the first couple of days training the dogs, teaching them, making them trust her, and getting them used to transforming. By the end of the second day, she was confident she could change all four and none should attack her, each other, or the other Undersiders. The training continued. Lily helped; the two of them were almost always at the warehouse, to guard it. Their powers weren't as good at scaring people as Brian's or Taylor's could be, but they had a lot of force, and that was enough. They also had one of the scroll things Aisha had stolen. Lisa hacked them, and gave one to Taylor because she would be able to contact the others faster with her bugs. But until she could get out of whatever work they were doing and reach the warehouse, Rachel, Lily, and the dogs would need to hold the line.

Lily and Rachel didn't get along at first, because it took a while for Rachel to get along with anyone. But Lily was pretty good with dogs, listened to Rachel about them, and wasn't annoying, so it was fine. Lily tried talking with Rachel more than Rachel wanted to talk, but she learned quickly and stopped trying so much. They did talk some, though, and found a little in common. Lily did more of the finding than Rachel. She pointed out that the closest things they had to parental figures for most of their early years—Rachel's mom and foster parents, Lily's team leaders and PRT guardians—were usually absent or bad at being parents, and changed frequently, forcing them both to learn to function independently. Rachel thought that was kinda profound, but wasn't sure it mattered that much. If it had, why had one of them been a hated villain and the other a lauded hero? And if Lily was right, how close was one to having ended up like the other?

It didn't really matter, Rachel decided. Not only was it done, it was an entire world behind them. They could worry about that stuff when they were established. Right now...Rachel felt a kind of dread she hadn't felt since before Leviathan. Before then, she and the Undersiders were nobodies; afterwards, they took control, didn't have to worry about some other group just deciding to fuck with them. Even Coil—he had to  _work_  to fuck with them, and he died for it. Of course, then they got put in a weird world, which meant there was someone who could fuck with them even then.

The day went by. They got lunch, one at a time, and went back to what they were doing. The day kept going by, and eventually it ended. Sabah was sad when she got back, because she still couldn't find a job. Taylor was less sad, because while she hadn't found a job, she did find someone who would give her books in exchange for working. Lisa said she'd made progress, but wanted to wait until everyone was back before sharing the news. Alec and Aisha brought back money and one of the weird phones, but didn't say much about where they got it. They just said that the people who had it deserved what they did. Brian was bringing home dinner, but he didn't get back until a lot after everyone else, which made everyone impatient and hungry, but he got back eventually. Everyone ate, and Brian mentioned that he got a job at the docks. No one really cared, but some of them pretended to.

Then Lisa was ready to tell about her day. "I talked with Junior."

"And?"

"He seems interested in working with me. He thought the two of us would work together well—he had information, I have intuition. He's also interested in contact with a certain friend of mine who recently acquired a large amount of stuff he or she is interested in selling. Who wants to be that friend?"

"When and where would we be meeting him?" Taylor said.

"Eleven tomorrow evening, ideally, and not far from the warehouse."

"I'd probably be best," Brian said. "I'm big and intimidating, he shouldn't start anything stupid."

"True," said Lisa, "but given what you'd be doing, it might not be a bad idea to have a backup."

"I'll volunteer," said Taylor. "I should be able to be reasonably…criminal-looking, without the unpredictable problems that could arise if we sent, say, Alec as our representative."

"Hey!" said Alec. "The problems I'd cause are  _very_  predictable!"

Lisa said stuff about agreeing that Taylor would be a good backup. They also talked about other plans. If they got enough money from Junior, they might not need to get jobs so soon. Sabah didn't like the idea of giving stuff to criminals, but admitted she didn't know what to do with it, and that the money would really help. The others talked a bit more, then Brian, Taylor, and Lisa went off to plan, followed by Lily and Sabah. The others seemed worried about Brian, and argued with him about if he would go back to work tomorrow or not. He lost.

~0~

The next day came, starting much like the last. Rachel, Lily, Lisa, and Brian were staying, watching, waiting. Taylor was checking with the book place, Sabah was looking to see if there was any work she could do, and Alec and Aisha were going to try finding odd jobs or something. Lisa and Brian talked about Junior, while working to make the warehouse nicer. Rachel took care of the dogs; Lily was keeping watch, mostly. They had lunch, and it seemed like a normal day.

Lily called down to the others. She said she saw a bunch of workers diverting traffic and asked Lisa if that was weird. She looked and said they were probably White Fang, trying to clear out the area so they could use a bunch of force to take the warehouse without anyone noticing and calling the police. Brian started generating his smoky, oily darkness almost immediately; he couldn't do it as fast as he could before he was captured by Bonesaw, but he could still make a lot with time, and it moved a lot faster too. Lisa said she already called Taylor, so she headed to the roof with Lily, bringing some stuff to throw. Rachel gathered the dogs and some rope and cloth, then took them out a side door to an alley.

Rachel waited there. While she waited, she used her power on Boris and Zork. Asymmetric layers of muscle and plates of bone covered their bodies as they grew larger, larger than any dog, larger than Rachel, larger than small cars. She grew Zork until he was almost as big as her old dogs could go, but Boris didn't have as much experience so Rachel left him a foot shorter than Zork. Rachel did this quickly and got tired, so she had a minute to rest after. But then the White Fang, apparently deciding there weren't too many people around, attacked.

Almost ten animal-people in black hooded shirts, thick white vests, and gray masks ran at the warehouse from across the street, carrying machetes. Rachel sent her dogs out, whistling quietly. They weren't as well-trained as her dogs at home were, but they knew how to sit, come, drop anything in their mouth, and fetch. They wouldn't be able to do much of anything clever, but dogs knew to hurt people that hurt them.

Zork grabbed a White Fang, and all of the others started attacking him. Boris tried to grab another, but his target stabbed at his snout and backed away. The rest of them ran, and Rachel whistled—loudly enough that the dogs could hear, but not so loud that the Fangs would notice—ordering them to come back. They did, and Zork dropped a Fang at Rachel's feet. She quickly tied him up, gagged, and blindfolded him, ignoring the questions he asked before being silenced.

Rachel stared down the alley and across the street. The White Fang were moving. She couldn't see, but she could guess what they were doing. Either they wanted to circle the building, or they wanted to get away from where the dogs came from. Rachel used her power on Blaine and Lina, making them grow rapidly, and hoped the fight wouldn't last long enough for Boris and Zork to have problems. Once Blaine was roughly the size of Boris and Lina a little smaller, Rachel sat down against a wall and waited, listening for an attack and watching for some signal from Lisa.

A few minutes after the first strike, Rachel saw some trash being thrown from the roof of the warehouse and over the alley where she was waiting. She listened and heard the White Fang. Rachel sent Boris and Zork out front before following Blaine and Lina through the other end of the alley. Brian would be helping the dogs in front, it was probably safe for them.

There were something like a dozen there, most with machetes, but several had axes or pistols or other weapons. Rachel ducked behind a dumpster and sent Blaine and Lina out to fetch. Lina's long, bony tail whipped from side to side as she sprang at the White Fang, knocking several over. The White Fang members with guns shot her, to no effect; you couldn't really hurt Rachel's dogs once they transformed, unless you hit the sac in the middle where the dog's real body was or made a big enough cut through the hardened flesh to make the dog lose lots of blood. Blaine slunk around to the side before quickly lunging at a White Fang with an axe. His friend stabbed at Blaine with a spear, but it bounced off a bony lump in Blaine's hide.

About a dozen Fangs fled, mostly machete-men. The others surrounded the dogs. Lina continued to knock Fangs over with her tail and paws, but Blaine backed away under the pressure. The spear-Fang grabbed her friend and tried to pull him away from Blaine, but Blaine pulled harder; the spear-Fang lost her footing and was being dragged away with her friend. Several others started attacking Blaine, one shooting and others hacking at his bony plates. He got a few cuts, but nothing serious; it enraged Blaine, and he charged at the group.

Three Fangs ran, having reached their limit. Two more followed them, and soon the rest. The terrified animal-people scattered into the nearby streets. Rachel tried to call the dogs back, but Blaine was still angry and chased them for a minute. She brought those dogs through the alley and past the bound Fang, to the front of the warehouse, where darkness spilled out over the street. Rachel saw Zork, halfway in the shadows, shaking a person trying to hold onto his chainsaw. Rachel sent Lina and Blaine into the darkness. As she watched, looking for some hint about what was happening, she noticed a cloud of bugs gathering and going into the darkness.

_Taylor's here._

White Fang members—dozens of them, maybe as many as thirty—ran out of the darkness. Brian let the darkness fade, and Rachel saw that Lina and Zork had grabbed one Fang each. She went back into the alley and dragged the bound one out front. Rachel dumped him onto the ground, removed his blindfold, and had the dogs drop the ones they had grabbed. They looked at Brian, who looked like a creature out of a nightmare. He was surrounded by a cloud of his darkness, and held some close enough to his body that he almost looked like he was made of it. Moreover, he was surrounded by a cloud of flying insects, flying around, shifting their movements slightly each time he moved.

"Leave," Brian said, his voice distorted by the noise-altering effects of his power and echoed by the insects' buzz rising. "Leave, and never return. Any of you."

One of them ran before Brian even finished his second statement. The other stayed long enough to get the bound one free before following.

~0~

Two a half minutes later, the present Undersiders (including Taylor) were in the middle of the warehouse, trying to avoid getting attention more than normal so no one would notice them. The roadblock and fight would make a lot of people interested. Lisa said that the White Fang had probably just tried to see what was going on. She thought they'd guess the Undersiders' power was growing quickly, and wouldn't be back until they could get a lot more people. This didn't make anyone feel better.

Life went on. They sold a lot of stuff to Junior. Alec got a comic book which he wanted to show everyone. The peace lasted a bit. Then Lisa ran home and said that Junior was dead, and Rachel immediately realized things would probably fall apart.


	13. Small Steps 1.5: Lights

**Small Steps 1.5**

**Lights**

Hei Xiong watched his nightclub, technically open but largely empty. The club usually was, this early in the evening. There were several young men and a couple women at the bar, some fortifying themselves for the night, and that was enough reason for the club to be open.

Bale, one of Hei's employees, came over to where he sat. "There's a girl outside the club. She's askin' for you, sir."

Normally, Hei wouldn't think twice about ignoring some random girl who wanted to talk to him. However, at a slow time like this, he really had nothing better to do. "Eh, I can chat for a bit."

Bale saluted and went towards the door. Bale was always too formal for his own good.

After a minute, he returned, followed by who Hei assumed was the girl, almost old enough to be a woman, at the door. She had long, dark blonde hair in a braid, small green eyes, and a few freckles on the bridge of her nose. Her face bore several small scars, with a larger one on the corner of her cheek, like a macabre smile. The girl wore a red dress and matching jacket, with what looked like high-heeled boots with the heels broken off, and a blue handbag that didn't quite fit the outfit. She immediately noticed Hei, met his eyes, and smiled wide.

"Hello, Junior," she said once she came close. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Hei kept a stern face. "Aren't you a little young to be in this club?"

"Yes. It's a good thing I'm not here for the club, isn't it?"

"What  _are_  you here for, then?"

"Why don't you take a guess?"

"I don't have time for this."

"Sorry to interrupt your  _very_  busy evening, then…"

Hei could practically  _feel_  the sarcasm in her voice. He didn't like it, but the fact that she spoke to him like that, despite knowing who he was, meant that she was very confident or very, very stupid. She didn't seem stupid.

Hei studied her face. Not a fighter, that was for sure. She clearly didn't have Aura, nor was she muscular. The scars were from recent wounds, all roughly the same age as far as Hei could tell—not more than a month old and probably less. She seemed chipper and carefree, but Junior doubted that. This girl was carefully controlled. She wanted the conversation to go a certain way, she had this planned out. She was hiding something darker behind that happy mask...

"Revenge," Hei said. A guess, but a vague enough one. "Probably on whoever gave you all those scars. You're hoping to get some dirt, maybe hire some of my boys..." Hei saw the girl's cheerful smile melt into a smug grin. No.

"They say you know everything, Junior."

 _I think I see what she's getting at..._ "That's obviously not  _literally_  true, but I still know more than anyone else."

"Regardless of the details, you have a lot of  _data_  at your disposal. You're selling raw data to anyone interested. Not the smartest business model."

 _What would_ you  _know about running a criminal enterprise?_  Junior realized.  _She's probably never held the reins herself, but she's worked with someone who has._

She continued. "Do you think the people who make money off of metal, or Dust, are the people who pull the raw stuff out of the ground? No, you make money by  _refining_  the raw material."

 _NOW I know what she's getting at._  "Your point?"

The girl pointed to one of the patrons. "Green-hair over there's planning to make a move on Red over there. By the time he feels confident enough, he'll be drunk, it won't go well. His friend doesn't want to be here, he's just here because of Green. Bartender's working out, hoping he can move up to a bouncer position. Probably tired of listening to people's sob stories."

Most of that sounded like it could just be plausible-sounding nonsense, but the last gave Hei pause. The bartender on duty, Ignis had complained about the patrons more than once, did want to be a bouncer, and the main reason Hei hadn't granted his request was due to his unintimidating slight build. That said, it wasn't exactly a secret; it would be hard to imagine the knowledge leaving the organization, but not impossible...

"I've seen this before. What number am I thinking of?"

"I'm not psychic, Junior," the girl said. "I'm just good at putting the pieces together. Green's looking over at Red every couple of minutes, but trying to hide it. He's also drinking quickly enough that he'll be halfway to stupor by the time he'll have half a chance to talk to her. Blue's trying to convince Green to slow down, and not drinking anything himself. Plus, given how uncomfortable he is when the club's empty, I don't see him enjoying the night life. As for the bartender, he's keeping his conversations with the patrons short, brushing off their attempts at starting stories when he can, and has the look of someone who just started a strenuous exercise routine. It'd probably be good for him to back it off, at least a little."

If Hei trusted her...she was something special. But that trick still wasn't enough that he thought he trusted her.

"And what is it you're proposing?"

"You give me the pieces, I put them together."

"And why are you coming  _here_ , specifically?"

"You have what I need, and I have what you need. You have the information, I have the intuition."

"Hm." The Xiong family had always been a prominent one in the Vale underworld, and Hei's father, Banbai, had made it  _the_  family. His elder sister, Hese, had a knack for politics and diplomacy, while Hei himself was good with money and aesthetics. A few years ago, Banbai had died. Hese took over the family, and Hei was content running their primary front and headquarters. Then Hese died, too, leaving Hei to run everything. He was good with accounting, and personally had presence and strength, but he wasn't able to keep the Xiongs at the top, especially with Volkov, Torchwick and other newcomers pushing their way to the top so fiercely. This girl would fill in some pretty holes in his leadership capabilites, and sounded a bit desperate. Perfect...too perfect.

"Do you have a name?"

"You can call me Tattletale."

"That's a bit of a mouthful. How about Tale for short?"

Tattletale shrugged.

"Well, Tale, I'll be thinking about your offer, but if there's nothing else—"

"Two things, actually. I'm interested in a bit of quick cash right now, so..." She took a few small containers out of her bag. "Careful. They're volatile."

Hei carefully took the first, which looked like it might have been an empty lipstick container. Hei carefully removed the top and looked inside. Dust, Fire Dust most likely, raw.

"A bit ironic, considering what I said about selling raw Dust, but it's what I got."

Hei looked in the other containers. One was another lipstick container with raw Wind Dust; the other was a soup can with a taped-on lid, a few Dust crystals, and a lot of padding.

"Where did you get all of this?"

"And here I didn't think you'd be the type to care."

"Clever girl. For all of this, I'd say..." The lipstick containers probably had about half an ounce of Dust between them; raw, elemental Dust tended to go for about two or three thousand lien per ounce. She probably wouldn't expect much from those, but the crystals…they were probably somewhere around four ounces total, and even basic elemental crystals were valuable. Even for a low-quality one could sell for far more than raw Dust, easily five thousand lien per ounce for a decent crystal like these. Those prices weren't taking into account the recent Dust thefts, or the fact that the White Fang was taking out Schnee trains. In case the supply issues weren't enough, plenty of people were stockpiling Dust, foreseeing either a lack of Dust they would need or a chance to profit off of a shortage.

"Dust's volatile stuff," Hei said, still considering his options. Of course, those were the prices on the open market; he could usually get away with paying lower prices, simply by not asking questions about its source. Then there was a chance that this Tattletale wouldn't know the value of what she had...

Tattletale rolled her eyes. "I know what I'm doing. I wouldn't be here if I was so careless I couldn't handle Dust transport."  _No, Tale's intelligent. She'd look up the value of what she had before selling it. I'll have to be more subtle._

"I'm sure," Hei said. "I'll give you a thousand lien for the raw stuff."

"Fifteen hundred."

"A thousand. Good luck finding a better deal. Not many places deal with such small amounts of raw Dust."

"Eh, touche. One thousand it is."

She resisted, but collapsed too easily. Hei felt that she was making a statement—something like  _I'll work with you, I'll work on your terms, but I won't let you control me._  She might have just been haggling, but that didnt' fit.

"Now, for the crystals. Normally, something like these could be worth more than ten thousand lien."

"Two Fire Dust crystals, one one point eight ounces, one of point six; one Wind Dust crystal, one point five ounces. Roughly eleven thousand, four thousand, and six thousand lien, respectively."

"That's if they were good crystals, and they aren't. They were cheap to begin with, and you damaged them by carrying them in a tin can. I'd pay something like seven, three, and four thousand. Fifteen thousand for all the Dust, including the raw stuff."

"I didn't damage them. They crystals are worth more than twenty grand, they'll be worth more soon, and you're willing to pay about seventeen thousand lien for the crystals. Given the way the market's going, it's a good investment."

 _She isn't wrong._ "And how do you know that, Tale?"

"You're not a bad liar, Junior. Maybe the best I've dealt with in Vale. But I'm better at  _noticing_ lies than you are at  _making_ them."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"I'd assumed you were smart enough to figure that out on your own."

Hei was just about convinced that Tattletale was as good as she said. He had trouble imagining that anyone trying to get an agent on the inside would have her act so belligerent, if they were even willing to give up such a valuable associate. It was still a bit risky...but Hei had been playing it safe, and lost ground to the new blood. If he continued the way he had been going, he risked destroying the Xiong family, or leaving it stuck underneath some other group.

"Eighteen thousand for all of the Dust. And your other offer…consider it accepted."

She smiled. "The lien, please?" Hei had one of his boys get it; Onion counted out the money and smiled. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Junior. Hopefully, this will be a mutually profitable venture." She smiled. "And I don't think it'll come up, but if you ever get a chance to betray me, you'd best not take it."

"The same goes for you."

"Sure. Oh, one last thing. I know a guy trying to unload a bunch of stuff. Like, crates of it."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Weapons, I think some more Dust, miscellaneous effects...I don't think it's all sorted yet."

"Could be worth looking at."

"Cool. Sometime tomorrow evening work for you, or someone you trust?"

"Eleven." Hei suddenly realized that Tattletale had been leading the entire discussion. Hei personally cared more about getting a deal done than how he looked afterwards, but he was someone important now. It wouldn't do to just ignore appearances. Best-case scenario, one of his cousins would take over. There could be a couple of factions fighting over who would be the best leader. Worst-case scenario, one of the Xiongs' underlings could seize their syndicate. Wouldn't that be a tale—how he lost the Xiong syndicate for his incompetence. "Here."

"Here? Are you crazy?" Tattletale asked. "Sure, bring a few crates of stuff through the nightclub. Easy, no one'll notice. I find it hard to believe you don't have any way of transporting it to somewhere more secure."

That was a blunder on Hei's part. Trying to act like he was in control, failing and acting like an idiot.  _And I imagine that's exactly what she wants._ "And what do you suggest?"

"Twenty-second and Carmel. Part of the warehouse district, no one would care about someone moving cargo from one warehouse to another.

"This guy has a warehouse?"

"For now."

Twenty-second and Carmel…the only warehouses by that intersection, aside from corporate ones, were a few abandoned buildings and the White Fang base that had been captured. Hei realized that this could be a chance to talk with whoever did the deed.

"Sounds like a plan. I look forward to meeting this mysterious 'guy'."

"Any chance I'll get a cut?"

"I'll look into it after we seal the deal. No promises."

"Fine by me. I'll come by tomorrow, same time?"

"Sure. Contact information?"

"What, address and phone number? That needs roots, and I'm kinda new in town. When I get some, I'll let you know."

Hei sighed. "Could you at least tell me your real name?"

"Lisa. See you tomorrow." And like that, Lisa was gone.

Looking back on it, Hei decided that the meeting was a net profit. Between an easy few thousand lien from reselling the Dust, whatever he could get from meeting with this "guy," and Onion's future services, the family had gained capital. He still could have handled it much better, of course. She was in control, that wouldn't do. Hei just had to make sure he didn't let any blonde chicks emasculate him again.


	14. Small Steps 1.6: Lunacy

**Small Steps 1.6**

**Lunacy**

"I think we're boring the kids," Lisa said.

"Don't encourage them," Brian muttered. Lily didn't know why he bothered. Aisha and Alec were referred to as a unit frequently enough (usually due to misbehaving together) that them getting a collective label was inevitable, and "the kids" was the one that stuck. It didn't hurt that they were among the youngest of the Undersiders, or that they were the least mature. Needless to say, "the kids" took their label as inspiration and encouragement to annoy "Mom" and "Dad".

Aisha smirked. "Aunt Lisa is right, though." Lisa didn't approve of that nickname, but Brian didn't have much sympathy for her. "You're starting to talk about boring things. You three should probably talk about them without us."

Brian sighed. "Alright, but one last thing. Aisha, Alex? _No more stealing._ "

"Brian—" Alec started.

"No argument. I _know_ that's how you got most of what you got, and it's going to stop. We're _trying_ to take a clean path—"

"But Lisa gets to work with Junior!" Aisha whined.

"She's not doing anything as blatant or clear-cut as robbery. If you get caught—"

"My _power_ is _not getting caught!_ How would I get caught?"

"—it's a stain on your record that we'd _never_ be able to erase. I'm trying to keep us on the right side of the law, this time."

"We stole the warehouse," Rachel pointed out.

"We're _trying_. I won't claim we've always succeeded, or that we always will, but…I don't want to just throw it all away. We're not that desperate. The two of you are _going_ to look for legal work, even if you need to weed some old lady's garden for a few lien. And keep an eye out for something stable you can do."

"What're you going to do if we don't?" asked Alec.

Brian sighed. He knew he couldn't do much to enforce his demands.

"You would both go to bed right after dinner? With no dessert?" Lisa suggested.

Alec smirked. "Alright, we'll be good."

With that finished, Lisa, Taylor, and Brian went to one corner of the main "room" in the warehouse to make plans. It was open enough that they didn't feel like they were hiding anything, but they wouldn't get in the way of anything the others were doing to kill time. Lily followed them, as she often did. It made her feel like she actually belonged here, even if only a little. Sabah usually followed Lily. They didn't always contribute, but Lily decided to speak up tonight.

"They wouldn't call you Dad if it didn't bother you," Lily said. "Ignore them and they'll stop."

"If only it was that easy," Brian muttered. "I'd appreciate if—"

"She didn't tell you how to deal with your kids?" Alec shouted.

"If you don't have anything helpful to say, shut up!" Brian yelled. "Some days…Tomorrow, I'm going to be meeting Junior after work."

"After work?" Lisa asked. "I'm not sure about that."

"What do you mean?"

"Exertion isn't good for you right now. You're still not really recovered from wrestling Rachel's dog. Your leg's probably not all good, either. I'm pretty sure you're worse now than when we left Meadow-Creek."

Now that Lily thought about it, she saw what Lisa was talking about. Brian had been walking with a bit of a limp, he tried to sit still a lot, his temper was shorter.

"I still need to work. We need—"

"We need you to not kill yourself, okay? Like you said, we're not that desperate. And if that's not reason enough, you should be rested when you meet Junior tomorrow."

"It's not that bad," Brian argued.

"Not quite," Lisa said, "but it _will_ be if you don't take a rest some time, soon. Does your job have some kind of vacation or sick day policy?"

"We basically come in at the beginning of the day, then they pick a bunch of people to work that day. Nothing formal."

"Perfect. You can miss a few days to rest. End of discussion."

Brian looked to Taylor. She hesitated before saying, "I'm with Lisa on this one. You don't look great. You need to rest, maybe consider having an actual doctor check you over."

Brian sighed. "Fine, I'm outvoted. Next order of business. This Junior, what's he like?"

"First off, he's pretty imposing. Close to seven feet tall, I'd say."

"That's good to know, but not that important."

"Just letting you know. Junior's imposing and he talks big, but he's out of his element. Junior's nicknamed partly because people see him as a poor replacement for his predecessors—he's good with money, but not so good with underworld politics and such. Junior's a good liar for Remnant, as long as he doesn't start doubting himself or forget his story. A bit touchy, too—he's a better beta than alpha, but he needs to be an alpha and knows it."

"So don't challenge his authority."

"If you don't have to. Call out his BS early, too, it helps."

"Speaking of which, do you have any idea what this stuff's worth?

"Research has been…tricky. I walked around downtown to get an idea of what stuff is worth in general, so I have some guesses. We'll be getting a bit less, partly because we're paying a premium for silence, partly to get some goodwill, but he'll ask way less if he can make up an excuse for it. He tried to pay about half market value for the crystals, when a fair price was maybe three-quarters or four-fifths."

"Any chance of foul play?"

"I doubt it so. I get the vibe that Junior's trying to treat his syndicate as he would a legal, if cutthroat, business. It's where his strengths lie. Still, probably not a bad idea to bring some muscle. Lily and Taylor?"

"I'd feel better with Rachel's dogs," Brian said, "but I get why that's a bad idea. They're too visible, too memorable, and they look too much like Grimm, especially at night."

"Bingo. Having Aisha in the wings wouldn't be a bad idea." Lisa turned towards where Aisha and Alec were talking for a moment. "Hey, Alec! If he's willing to behave, having a visible 'minion' along would help the image."

"I could be persuaded," Alec shouted back.

Lisa shrugged. "Anything else we need to talk about now?"

"I'm thinking that long-term planning should wait until after the deal with Junior, and ideally after you get some information from him about the city's situation, who's in power."

"Fair."

"So…maybe we could go over what the stuff we have is worth?"

Lily decided that she probably didn't need to know how much they were going to try and sell a crate of Dust rounds for, so she and Sabah drifted away.

~0~

"Five minutes early," Lisa said.

Lily could see a truck pull up to the corner. They, Sabah, and Taylor were watching from a room half a block south of the corner where Brian and Alec would be meeting Junior. Rachel was in a nearby warehouse, and Aisha hiding somewhere, just in case; Lily hoped she was paying attention. Lily and Taylor were watching, waiting for any sign that the deal was going sour. As for Lisa, she had a pair of binoculars, with which she watched the proceedings intently.

"And you won the bet?" Taylor asked.

"Yup."

Lily sighed. "Why does he keep betting with you?"

"Alec's not the sharpest nail in the box. And probably either addicted to gambling or willing to take the losses, hoping for the one day where he'll win a bet with me and be able to gloat about it forever."

Junior came out of the cab of the truck, with a few of his goons exiting the back. He and Brian exchanged greetings before getting down to business.

"…So…" Sabah had decided she'd rather be on the roof, with some company and news of what was going on, than alone and worrying in the warehouse. Unfortunately, they hadn't been talking much.

"I know something else we can talk about," Lisa said, eyes still on the meeting. "How're those silk clothes you're making, Sabah?"

Sabah said, "Well, I've basically finished the spider silk undershirts. Just need to put it all together, really. I've started work on Brian's stuff, too…Um, Taylor, about your clothes…you didn't seem like a dress person."

"I'm used to the dress, but that doesn't mean I really like it."

"Should I make pants for you, then?"

"Thanks. So…how do you like the view? Up here, on the roof?"

"It's…nice. I see why so many capes travel on the rooftops. The view's good. You can see everything, feel…big, important. And Remnant's sky is pretty at night. The air's so clear, you can see a lot more stars than back home. And the moon is…beautifully eerie."

"Definitely eerie," Lisa muttered. "You know what I realized the other night? The moon is always on the opposite side of the planet from the star."

"Huh?"

"I mean, the moon always rises when Remnant's 'sun' sets. On Earth, the moon gets closer to and farther from where the sun appears to be as its phases shift. Remnant's moon shatters and reforms, or shows and hides its shattered side or whatever, and it always rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. You never see it in the day, no matter what its phase."

"Ah."

"Maybe it's at a Lagrange point?" Taylor suggested.

"Those are only stable without outside gravitational attraction," Lisa pointed out. "Other planets would probably disrupt it, and I'm not sure if the equations account for the third body's gravitational attraction, either—the moon is a lot bigger than an artificial satellite. It isn't impossible, but…"

"…it's likelier than any other explanation?" Taylor guessed.

Lisa sighed. "I suppose. I think they've decided on the price of the Dust rounds. Junior's looking a bit angry or concerned, but…mostly satisfied with the deal, I think. I'd say things are going well."

"How much longer do we have to stay up here?" Lily asked Lisa.

"Until they're done. I don't _quite_ trust Junior enough to not stab Brian in the back at the last minute, and it's possible someone's noticed us and they're waiting for us to leave. It's not likely, but unlike Alec, I don't like to gamble."

Lily looked over at the Valish skyline. Lily had been to more than a few big cities, and no two had quite the same architecture or layout…but Vale seemed different from anything on Earth. She decided it looked like the whole city was designed by an artist, or at least one of those architects who wanted to create artsy buildings. _Or maybe it's the local architectural norm. Or maybe I just don't know anything about architecture and there's a perfectly good reason for why the city looks weird to me._

"I've been thinking about relating to the moon and Dust. The moon, even if it's at a Lagrange point, doesn't really work. It should have fallen back together at least some, even if it exploded just this morning. Breaking a moon doesn't turn off its gravity, and even if it did somehow, the bits wouldn't stay together like they are."

"What if the chunks reached escape velocity?" Lily asked.

"Then they would be escaping, not just sitting there. And then there's Dust. It's not tinker-tech, but it's apparently a simple substance with an energy density way above anything we have on Earth, and way more flexible."

Taylor said, "Are those related?"

"Not directly, but I think we need to admit that this world might be…based in part on forces not found on Earth, which we would consider…let's say _beyond_ natural."

"Magic?" Lily stated.

Lisa shrugged. "Maybe. 'Any sufficiently advanced technology' and all that, but the Remnans don't _seem_ sufficiently advanced, and they're definitely not responsible for Dust. They don't have electricity, they power _everything_ with Dust. They don't seem to have personal computers or microchips or transistors, I think they just have big central…Dustputers and these terminals that everyone connects with. They have Dust, which NASA would kill to get a sample of, but they haven't even considered using it to go into space."

"Why are you bringing this up with just us?" Sabah asked. "Shouldn't this be a whole-group kind of thing?"

"Alec would never let me forget if I said this world ran on magic and I was wrong."

Taylor nodded. "You'd never hear the end of it. But…I see where you're coming from. And I can see the magic argument elsewhere, too. The plants are a lot more…vibrant and richer, from the same or less sunlight and soil that's probably not that much better."

"The people are faster, stronger, and tougher," Lily added, "the cities and wilderness cleaner. There's—there were a lot of stray dogs in Brockton Bay, even with Hellh—Rachel adopting all she could, and they were half-feral at best. Stray dogs here are rare and already almost trained."

"It's almost like the whole world's a…fairy tale, or something," Sabah muttered.

"So what you're telling me is, Alec won't laugh at me?"

"He'd laugh at you for saying the sky was blue if he thought he had an excuse," Taylor pointed out. "But…I don't think he would have _much_ reason to for saying there might be magic."

Lisa sighed, handed the binoculars to Lily, and put her head in her other hand. "It's just…magic? Really? That doesn't seem right, you know? I feel like it's just giving up—'This weird stuff if happening because we woke up in…in a rejected Maggie Holt plot or something. It makes sense, but…it doesn't."

"'Once you eliminate the impossible—'" Taylor started.

"'—whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' I know. But magic is, almost by _definition_ , impossible. And what other things have we eliminated?"

"You just don't want to tell the others 'magic,'" Lily said, handing the binoculars back to Lisa.

"Or you, or myself. But…"

"There's another side to that sufficiently-advanced technology principle," Taylor pointed out. "Any sufficiently…analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."

"Who said that?" Lily asked.

"Just me, I think. Anyways, people used to think superpowers were just magic, like you think Dust and stuff is. But then we studied them, started to understand it, and parabiology was added to our body of scientific knowledge. Maybe this is the same."

"Dust doesn't getting its power from the same place we do," Lisa said. "Probably."

"You know what I mean. If we got a sample to Earth, they could figure out how it works, and then Dust and stuff would just be science."

Lisa sighed. "Well, what matters for us is that it's all magic as far as we're concerned…and as far as I'm ever likely to figure. Looks like they're wrapping things up down there, too, so if anyone wants to argue, make it quick."


	15. Small Steps 1.7: Glass

**Small Steps 1.7**

**Glass**

"Hey, Tattletale."

"Junior. How's business?"

"Good. That tip you gave me was pretty good. He seemed to know what his stuff was worth, but didn't push too hard to get it. Always good to deal with someone who knows who's in charge. Hey, me and some of the boys were going to play some poker, would you like to join us? It's mostly a chance to relax, I don't think there's a problem if you don't pay in."

_Poker? In Remnant?_

"I'll play. And I'll pay in, I've saved up a little."

Lisa lost a few hundred lien before catching on to the idiosyncracies of the game and, more importantly, the players. Li was cunning, almost as good at bluffing and reading people as Junior was. Ignatius was reckless at bluffing and would meet any raise if he thought he had a decent hand. Odel would back down from almost anyone who showed confidence in their hand.

Learning the game was trickier, but still not that hard. The game was a lot like Earth poker, but with different scoring quirks and a different deck. Suits were kingdoms, simple enough. Numbers were one through seven; there were four face cards, Councilor, Huntsman, Royal, and Dragon, though some games didn't count the Dragons as belonging to any kingdom, so the deck differentiated Dragons by art color alone. Finally, there were five Grimm cards, which didn't belong to any kingdom, and three Rogues, which were like Jokers in that most games didn't use them much unless they were needed to replace some other card.

Lisa also examined the images on the Councilor, Royal, and Huntsman cards of each kingdom, hoping to gain an insight into national stereotypes. She didn't get much from them, except that Atlas was high-tech and that the Mystral Huntsman was using what Li identified as sorcery. As far as Lisa knew, sorcery neither existed in Remnant nor was widely believed to exist; the same was true for dragons. She supposed that even a world of fairy tales needed something to put in its stories.

In any case, after several hands, Lisa made her money back and then some. Her favorite round was when she managed to bluff so hard that Ig folded on three Huntsmen and two fives when she had nothing but a pair of Dragons…but not before betting nearly ten thousand lien. Between this and substantial contributions from the others, Lisa nearly doubled her money right there. At that point, Ignatius stormed away from the table, provoking a burst of laughter from everyone else.

Lisa found the conversation more interesting and useful. Lisa pretended to be focused on studying her cards, while she paid minimal attention to them, a bit more to the other players to see how they were doing, and mostly focused on interpreting their statements to glean more understanding of the world and the group. As it happens, she learned more about the latter than the former. Junior's group had strong opinions about family, honor, and the like, and unlike many, they actually lived by them. Lisa suspected that the only reason Junior was even running the syndicate was because his father and sister had—Junior certainly didn't seem to have much in the way of talent. The others…their opinions on the situation varied. Ig and Li thought something should change, but Odel felt that if they didn't abide by their principles through thick and thin alike, they were no better than common crooks.

Another hand ended, and Junior glanced at the clock. "Odel, Li, probably about time to start setting things up for the night. Lisa and I have some business to discuss."

"Well played, Lis," Odel said. Li nodded; Lisa could tell his pride was bruised after losing so badly and so consistently to a teenage girl. Lisa considered that almost more of a compliment than anything Odel could have said.

After the others left, Junior began to share what he knew and wanted to know about the underworld of Vale.

~0~

"Have you considered contacting the White Fang about purchasing Dust?"

"…You _are_ joking, right?"

It had been three days since Lisa started working for Junior. No one wanted to play poker with her anymore, after two consecutive days where she practically robbed anyone who let her join a game; despite this, she managed to get to know some of them.

"Even with how destructive the Fang are, they surely took _some_ Dust from the train. If their leaders have any sense, they took as much of it as they could. Definitely the crystals, raw Dust might be too volatile. That much Dust, they can't use it all—they don't have the facilities to use it as more than bombs and maybe fuel."

"They go through a lot of those."

"And even more other things. Dust's worth a lot, and the way things are going, the prices are just going to rise. Give them a half-decent price, and you'll have a good investment. Not to mention that if you can give the Fang reason to trust you, there's one nightclub they won't be choosing when they decide to scare the common human a bit."

Junior had been preparing an objection, but that last argument seemed to give him pause. Lisa had learned his buttons. He was concerned about appearing to be in charge, so Lisa only made major suggestions when no one was watching. In addition, Junior was stubborn; Lisa had to ease her way through the argument, carefully breaking down his reluctance bit by bit. He wasn't confident in his abilities, and, again, liked to feel in charge, so she timed the peak of her arguments to when Junior would guess that she was about to start explaining things that any self-respecting crime lord should know. It was a delicate art, but Lisa would have been talented at manipulating people even if she hadn't triggered.

"…It's worth considering, at least. I'll bring it up with the boys, see what they think." Lisa knew that was almost as good as a yes. He wasn't going to bring something up with the boys if he wasn't already planning to do it; he merely did so so he could check for flaws, and so he had a chance to back out later rather than committing.

"Glad to hear it." Lisa knew the White Fang would be back, and that Junior knew all about the warehouse. If Lisa could broker good relations between Junior and the White Fang…there were a number of potential options. "Is there anything else we need to talk about?"

"There's a Hagel executive coming by later tonight who has some rivals he wants us to deal with. Think you can scope him out, without him knowing?"

"'Think' implies some level of uncertainty."

"Don't get cocky, Tattletale."

"It's only cockiness if I'm wrong."

Junior smiled. "Then don't be wrong."

~0~

Lisa had been working with Junior for a week. She was listening to another business offer—one from Roman Torchwick, a newcomer who was making waves in the Valish underworld. He had lead a number of high-profile crimes, with a penchant for stealing Dust, and yet almost nothing was known of him. Torchwick never hit the same place twice, rarely with the same henchmen. He reminded Lisa a bit of the Undersiders, in their early days, when Coil was paying them to rob banks and casinos. It seemed to be nothing more than a passing resemblance, but Lisa kept it in mind.

Junior was also interested in Torchwick. Junior was an information broker, in part, and Torchwick was an unknown. More than a few people had come asking for information on him, and every one left disappointed. This was problematic, given how he built a reputation for knowing _everything_. Junior also worried that Torchwick might look to expand his business into fields which would compete with him—or he might just decide to attack to take potential complications out of the way.

So, when Junior heard Roman was interested in hiring some of his boys, he didn't bother consulting anyone before accepting. Not that Lisa minded—she couldn't think of a reason not to. The meeting would be in the club, surrounded by Junior's men and women. They weren't the best in Vale, but they could stand up to just about anyone. Well, everyone except Huntsmen and the like, but between their weapons, their years or decades of training and experience starting from early adolescence, and supposedly some secret techniques they learned, that didn't say much.

Naturally, Junior wanted to get as much as he could from the meeting with Torchwick. So there Lisa was, sitting alone at a table not far from where Junior and Torchwick were discussing numbers and terms, listening in, focusing entirely on divining everything she could about Torchwick. Lisa wasn't sure she liked what she heard. Torchwick certainly didn't care about Junior; Lisa got the impression that Torchwick considered him nothing more than a resource to be used and thrown away. If Junior was in a mood to be reused, all the better, but Torchwick knew he could find goons elsewhere. Lisa considered the number of times Torchwick's crimes lead to the capture of a substantial number of his henchmen, and she didn't see any reason this time would be different. Torchwick gave a "long-term partnership" spiel, but his body language and tone disagreed.

The job sounded simple enough, though. Hit a Dust shop, From Dust till Dawn, notable mainly for being open late at night. Lisa couldn't help but wonder why someone would be buying Dust that late. The shop was run by an old man, alone, and was in a part of town where police response was slow. Lisa noted that it was on Wave Street, near Eighth, and relatively close to Beacon…but she couldn't imagine one of the teachers or other Huntsmen there coming down to town to deal with a simple robbery. Students…maybe one would be reckless enough, if they heard about it in time. Afterwards, they would be flown away by a tiltjet with some kind of cloaking device, along with the Dust. Simple, safe. So why did Lisa distrust the plan so much? Perhaps it was the fact that Torchwick had access to a cloaking tiltjet and was _robbing a civilian Dust store_.

An agreement was reached. Lisa knew you tried not to anger someone without knowing if they could ruin your life, especially someone with a track record like Roman Torchwick's. Still, it left her uneasy. She got up and walked towards Junior, planning to share her insights, but was cut off by a tall blonde with a leather jacket a few sizes too small. Remnan fashions still seemed alien to Lisa. The blonde was headed straight for Junior; Lisa quickly considered her options. Probably best to let Blondie talk with Junior first, but Lisa had still gotten up, and while no one the club _should_ notice or care, Lisa didn't like betting on "should". She'd look unusual at the bar, and almost as weird just walking from one empty table to another across the room, so Lisa decided to feign a visit to the restroom.

She went in, found it empty, and waited a minute. If no one was specifically watching her, no one would notice anything unusual. If someone was, she would be noticed no matter how long she waited. When Lisa came out, she saw Junior hunched over, in pain, and the blonde with a smug look on her face. The two of them were surrounded by a number of Junior's boys, weapons drawn.

_Hunched posture, surrounded by his armed men, pained noises: Recently sustained a blow to the crotch region._

_Loyalty of men to Junior, lack of strangers in area, blow to groin: Blonde delivered blow to groin._

_Professional attitude, surrounded by his armed men, positive facial expression of blonde: Largely unprovoked._

Lisa wondered what the _hell_ had gone on while she was in the bathroom. Junior got up, groaning a little more.

"You'll pay for that," Junior growled as he donned his red sunglasses and walked towards the middle of the dance floor.

The blonde followed. "Oh, Junior, I was just playing with you! Don't be so _sensitive!_ "

_Willingly surrounding herself with armed men, unconcerned tone: Ignorant of the danger._

_Aggressive behavior, ignorant of danger: Conflict likely._

_Ignorant of danger, no apparent weapons: Untrained/Unprepared for armed combat._

_Unprepared, unprovoked attack, surrounded by armed men: Defeat inevitable._

Lisa took a seat and watched the show.

"Come _on_ , let's kiss and make up, okay?"

"Huh? …Okay…"

Lisa sighed. _Junior's_ just _trusting enough to do that, even after being kicked in the nuts,_ Lisa thought. _Not that it matters much, I suppose._

The two leaned together, but a moment before their lips actually met, Blondie punched Junior in the face, sending him flying across the club.

_Throwing man across the room, lack of appreciable reaction force, Remnan: Possesses Semblance, point-blank telekinesis._

The club swiftly emptied of everyone except Junior's men and the DJ, who continued playing diligently. The blonde shifted into an aggressive posture, and her bracelets unfolded into a pair of gauntlets, with what seemed to be shotgun shells attached. Lisa's power began filling in the blanks, but she already knew the answer. She was a Huntress.

Junior's men charged towards the blonde Huntress, and she lept high into the air.

_Point-blank telekinesis, great leap: Semblance capable of affecting self._

_Semblance capable of affecting self, aggression, confidence: Semblance has defensive application._

The Huntress slammed into the ground, her gauntlets on fire, sending Junior's men flying backwards and making the dance floor literally ripple.

_Large number of affected men, rippling floor: Semblance is not limited to single target._

_Flaming gauntlets, Remnan weapon: Fire Dust._

_Rippling floor, Fire Dust, leap, aggression: Huntress showing off._

Lisa had stuck around longer than most of the club's patrons, but now she started to look for a safe escape route. The Huntress kicked one of Junior's boys into the ground as the song changed, before slamming another with her gauntleted fist. She heard an unusual noise.

_Shotgun shells, muzzle flash, unknown mechanism of Remnan firearms: Huntress has shotguns built into gauntlets._

_Shotgun, lack of blood, likes showing off, Huntress, telekinetic: Fine control over Semblance, possible subconscious desire not to believe she is wounding people._

Lisa looked for an exit she could run to. _That Huntress is too punch-happy for my tastes…I really don't want her to see me._ She would have run, but there was still a chance that they could pull ahead. The Malachite twins weren't Huntresses, but Junior said they had unusually strong auras. Certainly, the others didn't stand much of a chance, even once the DJ began providing covering fire. _Carmine always was reckless…_ The Huntress ran for the DJ booth and lept, firing one gauntlet down.

_Semblance makes her capable of greater unassisted leaps, use of weapon to assist leap, subconscious use of Semblance: Semblance primarily operates unconsciously._

_Unconscious Semblance, use of weapon to assist leap: Unaware of Semblance?_

The Huntress shot the DJ before slamming him into the booth, cutting off the music, and then throwing him to the ground. He didn't move, like Junior's boys before him. The Malachites had finally heard the commotion, though, and they walked into the club.

"Melanie, who _is_ this girl?"

"I dunno, Militia, but we should teach her a _lesson._ "

The Huntress made a noise between a grunt and a laugh, barely audible in the shattered club. She shook her arms, ejecting all the spent casings, before taking two belts of different-colored shells, hurling them into the air, and catching them with the weapons.

_Red hue, user's penchant for fire: Shells likely use fire Dust as means of damage._

Her suspicions were proved within seconds, as the Huntress leapt onto the dance floor, launching what almost seemed like fireworks, streaming toward the twins before detonating on the floor. They rolled and lept out of the way of every shot as they charged towards Yang. Melanie kicked the Huntress, who slid away from the attack before launching another shot at the pair.

_Damn it, you two, attack at the same time!_

Militia charged at the Huntress, followed closely by Melanie. Then, as if they had heard Lisa's thoughts, the Malachites attacked together. They briefly knocked the Huntress off her feet, but she glid away from the blow before they could follow up. She landed on her feet, and charged at them once more, slamming Melanie away. Lisa almost thought she saw her hair glowing, but it was probably just a trick of the light. Militia was quickly overpowered with a number of punches and blasts, sent flying into a fixture. Melanie charged at the Huntress; Lisa realized this was probably the best distraction she would get and ran for the back room.

Twenty seconds later, the sounds of fighting stopped and Lisa was in the back. _She'll leave, and then I can see if anyone's still alive._ Proably not many, aside from the boys Torchwick took with him; the Huntress was using shotguns. Even if she wasn't spraying gore everywhere, it was hard to imagine that they would be okay. If nothing else, how very still everyone lay once struck was a giveaway. _Brain damage or broken necks or something, probably._

She heard Junior's low, grumbling voice. _At least he'll be alive. If she doesn't kill him…Junior really should have stayed down._ With this in mind, and the sound of both Junior's impractical rocket launcher and the Huntress's shot-gauntlets firing, Lisa slipped out the back door and through a side alley to the front of the club. She saw a small figure in a red cloak, waiting, probably for the Huntress. Lisa crouched in the alley, watching.

Several seconds later, an explosion and more gunshots, the last ending with a muffled explosion, distracted Red-Cloak; Lisa took the oportunity to sprint behind a car, still concealed from Red-Cloak's point of view. Several seconds after that, the loudest explosion yet, followed by the club's windows shattering, with Junior flying out, followed by the Huntress. Junior was still.

The Huntress and Red-Cloak started talking, but Lisa didn't listen. She just ran around the end of the block, and prayed the Huntress wouldn't come after her.


End file.
